The Last of Us
by megamatt09
Summary: Kara comes out of the box early. Just in the nick of time because Clark could really use some help. Clark/Kara/Raya.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: A Warm Reunion.**

Kara Zor-El was a woman on a mission, the second she found her way out of stasis on her ship. It took a few hours for her to shake off the effects of her long slumber.

She didn't know how she was out. She knew one thing, she had to find the only other Kryptonian that she knew survived the destruction of the planet.

Kal-El, she needed to find Kal-El. She wished her powers were at more of a quarter capacity because it annoyed her how weak that she felt.

'_I'm not having a very good day,' _Kara admitted with an exasperated sigh.

Her day started by her Point of View with the destruction of her planet. The Council was warned that it was going to happen. They didn't listen to their top scientific minds ,only to the yes-men and women, the so called scientific experts who they paid to tell the Council precisely what they wanted.

She needed to think logically about this. Earth was primitive, generations beyond Krypton. They weren't used to the advance science. Stone age technology on Krypton was high level technology today.

She needed to approach this smart, and she needed to track down Kal-El.

Kara knew enough about Earth where she could blend in for a little while. She deluded herself to think that she knew everything. Krypton did get Earth television signals so there was that.

She recalled Lara's plans to send him to this family that she picked out the Kents. Kara always feared the worse, which was one of the reasons why she tried to trail Kal to Earth. She would have took Kal along on her ship but Jor-El would have refused because of who she was.

Jor-El never got along that well with his adopted brother. Mostly because Kara's grandfather put pressure on both of them and Zor-El lashed out in resentment. There was also the fact that Jor-El got the woman that Zor-El wanted.

Kara sighed, wondering how petty resentment lead to two of the more brilliant minds on Krypton being at odds with each other. Should they work together, they might have been able to get the Council to listen to reason.

"Kal-El, you should be at the Kents," Kara said and she tried to recall where she was.

She knew that she was extremely close.

Kara sensed something was amiss. She didn't quite know what it was.

Kal was such a cute little baby, she'd look forward to seeing him again.

She honestly did wonder how much time passed. Kara never quite got the hang of Earth time telling, but she could guess the passage of time well enough by how old Kal-El was.

* * *

Clark Kent paced around in the living room of the Kent home. He had to get a reign of himself before he wore a hole in the carpet.

The last year that was flashed back through his mind. Clark went through many trials and tribulations.

The release of the Phantoms from the Phantom Zone put a new element of danger. Brainiac might have been gone and Zod was returned to his place in the Phantom Zone, but Clark was not reassured all that much. That was only half of the battle.

Clark was glad that he was left alone with his own thoughts. He had a lot to do.

Maybe it was time for him to take that first step out of Smallville and towards a greater destiny. Jor-El was heavy handed in what he did. The man made a fair amount of sense sometimes and this could have been one of the reasons.

The Fortress didn't even work anymore so that point was moot. Clark had to stand alone.

A knock on the door brought him out of his stupor and he wondered who could be calling there.

He opened the door and he saw an interesting sight. A beautiful tall blonde stood in front of him. Her hair was clipped back to show her radiant blue eyes, which shined brightly when she faced him. She wore a tight red tank top and a pair of blue jean shorts, along with a pair of boots.

"Hello," the blonde commented in an anxious voice. "I was hoping that you could help me find someone who lives here, or at least I think lives here."

Clark frowned, when an attractive blonde showed up at your doorstep and started talking, you couldn't help and get a little bit suspicious.

"Who are you looking for?" Clark questioned her, his curiosity getting the better of him.

The blonde smiled. "This is kind of complicated to talk about…..can I come in?"

She didn't even wait for an answer, she nudged him out of the way. Clark paused, he normally didn't budge for anyone like that.

She moved him when she touched him.

"Who are you?" Clark asked her.

"My name is Kara," she said to him.

Kara took a moment to look over the man who let her in. He looked extremely healthy. She didn't know that humans were quite built like this.

"Oh, I'm Clark, Clark Kent," Clark replied to her, and he was only a tad bit suspicious of this girl.

"Good, I've got the right place, thank R….thank god," Kara said, reminding herself thank thanking a deity of a dead planet might raise some questions. "So….I was wondering…is Jonathan and Martha Kent home?"

"Martha Kent is out, she won't be back for the next week," Clark said, and he grimaced at a painful reminder. "And Jonathan Kent…..he passed away last year."

That was a painful trip down memory lane because Clark held himself personally responsible.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Kara said, she could tell that this was a bad topic. "I suppose that I'll just cut to what I had to ask you."

This conversation kind of got awkward.

"I'm looking for someone…..who might have gotten taken in by the Kents years ago, but I'm not sure how long," Kara said, nervously.

Clark frowned in response, he wasn't sure that he liked where this conversation was going. Who was this Kara girl anyway?

"I'm looking for someone who was named Kal-El," Kara said, throwing all caction to the wind.

"What…?" Clark asked, alarm bells ringing in his head.

Kara spoke slowly and more clearly. "I'm looking for a baby who was sent to Earth…..from a doomed planet called Krypton, by his parents Jor-El and Lara. His name was Kal, Kal-El."

Kara really hoped that they took him in, otherwise she was going to really feel kind of stupid.

Clark was on a hair trigger from the Phantoms. "You're one of them, aren't you?"

"I'm one of what?" Kara asked, confused about what he's saying.

"You're one of the escaped Phantoms, from the Phantom Zone," Clark said, and he was enraged that one of them tried to trick him in his own house.

This news was really distressing to Kara. "Wait a minute, what do you mean I'm one of the escaped Phantoms from the Phantom Zone…..there are escaped Phantoms from the Phantom Zone, here on Earth?"

Kara thought she couldn't be faulted. She freaked out just a bit that some potential dangerous criminals ran loose on Earth.

Clark didn't answer, he tried to grab onto Kara. He rushed at her at super speed.

Kara was caught off guard so much that he knocked her onto the couch, overturning it. He was on top of her. Which wasn't the worst position in the world to be in but she hated to be vunerable in any way so she squirmed.

"Wait a minute, there was no way that you should have overpowered me," Kara said, squirming underneath Clark.

"I guess you thought that you could get the jump on me, but it won't work."

"You're Kal-El," Kara whispered and she grew rigid. The blonde thought about attacking him.

She knew that would be a bad idea because that could total the entire house.

"I'm not here to fight you…I found you, oh Rao, how long was I out?" Kara asked and she tried to break free of Kal's iron grip.

Could she overpower her? Maybe she could, it had to do with the theory that females could retain solar energy in a quick manner than males could. Although, she wondered if someone retarded his strength and development because as long as he had been on Earth; he should have been stronger than this.

"You need to trust me, Kal-El, I'm just like you, I'm a Kryptonian, I don't want to hurt you," Kara said.

"So was Zod," Kal said in agitation.

"Yes, and he was rightfully banished to the Phantom Zone," Kara said and she wondered how he could be so stubborn.

He got it from his mother. Maybe from his father as well but from his mother as well.

"Kal, I'm really sorry," Kara said, and she broke free of his grip and uppercutted him in the jaw.

It was a bit of a cheap punch, and she effortlessly hoisted him up by the scruff of his neck.

'_Please tell me I can fly,' _Kara thought to herself.

Good she did retain a sufficient amount of yellow sunlight, she was almost worried about that. Her ship blocked out the vast majority of all radiation, including the solar radiation. It was a double edged sword.

Kara hurled Kal into the middle of a field.

"You attacked me!" Kal yelled at her.

"Yes, Kal, I did, but you gave me no choice," Kara said through gritted teeth, her eyes glowing and her temper rising. She managed to calm herself down by counting to thirty in her head. "You've had a really bad day, haven't you?"

Kal snorted. Try several days over several years. Understatement much.

"I thought so,' Kara said. "Kal….."

"It's Clark, Clark Kent," he told her.

"Fine," Kara said in exasperation. "It's Clark, okay Clark….I was looking forward to meeting one of the last of my kind. And I wanted to apologize."

Clark sized up because the last time she apologized, she socked him one in the jaw.

"For real this time," Kara said and she felt a bit guilty at what she did. She just didn't want the house to get trashed or any innocent people to get hurt. "I was to come after you, to make sure you got to the Kents okay. I wasn't going to interfere in your life too much, unless you really needed help. And then at fourteen, I was going to show myself to you, and explain your heritage."

"You're about six years late on that one," Clark said curtly.

"Yes, I'm sorry," Kara said. "And I'm really sorry about you having to deal with Jor-El alone, or rather his flawed AI program. He used a fundamentally flawed process to remove all emotion and he may have left a bug or two."

"Just a bug or two," Clark said. "If you asked me, his programming was buggier than Windows ME."

Clark couldn't take full credit for that one. That was all on Chloe.

"Well, there was a reason why that AI process was disabled," Kara said, her eyes flooding over. "So, are we friends? Do you believe I'm not a Phantom coming to eat your soul?"

Kara hoped that she lightened the mood a little bit. Kal, Clark, was all that she had left from back home.

"Wait, they do that?" Clark asked.

"Maybe," Kara said, shrugging her shoulders. "It has some of the worst criminals in the known universe."

"Just who are you really?" Clark asked her.

"I told you, my name is Kara, Kara Zor-El," Kara told him.

"Zor-El, that means…."

"Jor-El's brother, his adopted brother," Kara said with a frown.

"So, that means we're cousins?" Clark asked her.

"In a sense," Kara commented in a wary manner. She knew all about Earth taboos, but the genetic structure of Kryptonians was different from that of humans. The only way they resembled each other was skin deep. "But, that shouldn't really matter; we're the last survivors of Krypton. The legacy of our race rests on both of us."

Kara gave him a smile.

"We're different than them, then both of them, humans and most Kryptonians as well," Kara told him.

"Why are we different?" Clark asked.

Kara wondered how much he knew and how much he didn't know. He had some of his abilities, but he seemed woefully ignorant about where he came from. Kara thought that was unfair, because you need to know where you came from to know where you could go in the future.

"Jor-El never gave you the talk, did he?"

"No, my parents gave me that," Clark said, and he felt extremely uncomfortable where this one was going.

Kara was utterly confused at first because of his discomfort. Then she got it.

"The human one maybe, but not the Kryptonian one," Kara amended. That could wait until later. "But we've got a bigger problem, you talked about Phantoms escaping."

"I don't know what to do," Clark said.

Kara had a good idea of what she wanted to do. "The knowledge of the collective universe might be the only thing that can help us, did Jor-El have you find the stones yet?"

"Yes, been there, done that," Clark said.

Kara frowned, she was kind of disappointed. That would have been a good bonding experience.

"So, they're now the crystal of knowledge, and you have your…..Fortress of Solitude, for lack of a better term, I guess," Kara said and Clark nodded.

"The Fortress is dead, Jor-El has gone silent," Clark told her.

"Maybe, Jor-El is dead, but the collective knowledge that has been cataloged through the ages of Krypton could still be encoded," Kara said and she gave him a warm smile. "Come on, let's see if we can salvage anything."

Kara grabbed him by the hand. She hoped he understood necessity, the future of their race, depended on it.

Clark was taken off guard by this girl's arrival. He didn't quite know what to make of her, but he would need all of the help he could dealing with the escapees from the Phantom Zone.

**To Be Continued. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: **

"Did you really think that this Fortress was just an echo of a dead man?" Kara asked.

The two of them appeared in the Fortress in a flash of light.

"Jor-El is just the conscience that he set along with you," Kara explained. "Whether or not he is active or not, that doesn't really matter."

Kara wasn't completely certain but there was something that told her that Jor-El remained active within this Fortress. It was just that hunch that she said.

"You need to think outside of the box that you've put yourself inside," Kara told him.

"Oh, and…I suppose that was the mark of a true Kryptonian," Clark told her.

Kara raised her eyebrow and shook her head. "Actually that's far from a mark of a true Kryptonian. But we're far from conventional. Your father wasn't good at taking directive for instance."

"Really?" Clark asked.

"My mother was worse and your mother had her moments," Kara explained and she placed her hand on Kal's. "Believe me, the ability to use the awesome power here is within you. I can only guide you. You united the stones. The Fortress should belong to you, if you embrace who you are, all of who you are."

Clark Kent frowned when he looked at the Fortress. He was extremely skeptical about whether or not this would even work. He waited for Kara's nod of approval.

"It's all on you, K….Clark," Kara said, reminding herself that he was touchy about the entire real name thing.

He touched his hand to the console of the Fortress. For a second he felt foolish and thought that Kara was wrong.

The Fortress blinked to life and several symbols appeared around him. It started to blink around him. He recognized everything, he understood every single word.

"Amazing," he whispered.

"It is pretty extraordinary," Kara agreed, and this was kind of mundane as far as Kryptonian technology went.

Mundane shouldn't be mistaken for not useful. The entire world exploded around them.

"Okay, let's see if I can pull up all of the information about the Phantom Zone," Clark commented and he closed his eyes. This was just like using some kind of high tech Internet search.

The database of the Fortress hummed to life.

Kara looked around and frowned. She looked at one of the crystals and it hummed.

She kept her eye on it, she knew that Jor-El was there even though he was mute.

'_One of your trials,' _Kara thought.

"And that's a lot of information on the Phantom Zone," Clark said and he frowned. "So, some of the most dangerous criminals in the universe were sent to a place where they would remain forever alive."

"Yes," Kara agreed.

"Where there was no way out," Clark said.

Kara had a shrewd idea where this was going. "Yes."

"Or so it seemed," Clark added.

"Yes," Kara continued.

Clark frowned deeply when he continued to talk. "But they found a way out of the Phantom Zone."

'_Mostly because you had to open the gate because you got sent inside by Zod,' _Clark thought to himself.

"And now they've been stewing for…..it could be even centuries by the time they got out of there, never aging a day, only left along with their hatred," Clark told her.

Kara thought this looked pretty dire when he thought about that. "That sounds bad."

"That sounds bad," Clark agreed with her. "And then, the House of El was responsible of the creation of the Phantom Zone, so that means that they'll come after me."

"And me," Kara said and Clark turned around to face her. "Technically my father, if he really was my father, was adopted."

"What do you mean if Zor-El was your father?" Clark asked.

"I don't know, its complicated, please don't make me explain it," Kara said and she continued. "But no one knew about the adoption thing, therefore I'm considered a heir. Technically I'm the heir to the line because I'm older, by Kryptonian law. Although it doesn't matter because it's a moot issue."

"Yes" Clark agreed. "It would be a moot issue given that the entire planet blew up."

Kara turned around for a second.

"I'm sorry," Clark told her, realizing that this might be a sore subject for her. "I forgot that by your point of view it just happened yesterday."

"I was in that ship for years, my last thought that it was a bad dream, and everything would be okay," Kara said. "But what we have to deal with, it's living a nightmare."

Kara's eyes averted to the crystal. That was not something that was missed by Clark.

"Why do you keep staring at that crystal?" Clark asked her.

"Jor-El, why don't you not be a stranger, and say hello," Kara said to the crystal. "You know, your son could use your input right now."

"I didn't know that you survived the demise of the planet," Jor-El commented to her.

"Yes, I did, I escaped, my father intended to escape with me, but…I managed to put an end to that," Kara commented to him. "I guess Lara didn't tell you what her plan was to make sure her son grew up. If it wasn't for an equipment failure on my ship, it would have worked. But I guess that it is flawed as your AI."

Clark thought for one weird moment that Kara was going to fry the crystal out of sheer principle.

"There have been a release of several fugitives from the Phantom Zone," Kara commented.

"Yes, it is as I feared," Jor-El agreed, putting his personal distaste for the girl away for a second. "If Kal-El managed to start his training, none of this would have occurred."

"If you would have explained to me why I needed your direction, none of this would have occurred," Clark said and he felt his temper rise.

Jor-El's influence always caused him a few problems.

"I see that time has not caused you to grow less irrational, but the fate of humanity rests in your hands," Jor-El told him.

"And it won't rest in his hands alone," Kara told him. "Like it or not, we're the last of Krypton, the last that the planet has left. The only hope that Earth has of dispensing with the Phantom Zoners."

"You face criminals that have destroyed planets in their bloodlust," Jor-El warned both of them.

"We'll deal with it," Clark commented and he looked at him.

"Very well, this will be a battle that you will fight if you think that you are ready," Jor-El said to him.

Clark got on the defense. "There's no being ready about it. There's something that has to be done. It's not because I have a destiny, it's because it's a choice that I have to make. And I'm going to make the right one."

Jor-El remained silent for seconds and he went dead.

"You know, I wouldn't blame you if you pulled his crystal out of the wall and stomped on it," Kara said.

"Don't think that I haven't thought of it," Clark said crossly.

Kara sighed. "But he does have a point, we're facing a battle here. What powers do you have?"

"Heat vision, X-Ray vision, super speed, super hearing, super strength," Clark said and he sneezed suddenly. "Huh, that never happened."

"Okay, heat vision, X-Ray, super speed, super hearing, super strength, pretty much the basic starter set that you should have gotten, save one," Kara told him.

"And I can leap tall buildings in a single bound," Clark told her.

"Flight, Clark, flight, you know, up, up, and away," Kara said, throwing her hands back in exasperation.

Clark blinked after a second and shook his head. Flight was a tricky one. He had been grounded as a Kryptonian.

"I haven't figured that one," Clark told her.

"Okay, that's…..odd," Kara said. During her training, flight was the first power that she mastered. It made her feel liberated, it made her feel free.

"Why do you think that's odd?" Clark asked her and he adopted a mostly defensive stance.

"Well, I think that we all progress at different speeds," Kara said, choosing her words carefully.

"Are you trying to say…"

"Kal-El, please let me finish and try and figure out why you haven't mastered the most rudimentary power that a Kryptonian can manage," Kara said and she ran her hand over her hair.

"That's not fair…"

"No it isn't, you're only to a fraction of your potential," Kara said to him. "You're capable of much more than you are. Some day you'll be able to move mountains and punch planets out of orbit."

"Why would I want to punch planets out of orbit?" Clark asked her.

The thought of it seemed extremely outlandish.

"You never know when it might come in handy," Kara said evasively and she sighed again. "I suppose that it will come to you eventually. But…..just close your eyes and visualize yourself flying."

Clark didn't think that it was that happy of a visual to be honest. He wasn't that fussed about flying. He'd prefer if he could keep his feet firmly on the ground if he could manage to do that.

Kara could sense his body language. She gently wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into him.

Clark could feel a bit light headed at her scene. He couldn't really pinpoint what it was but it was something that caused him to be relaxed.

"Mental block, it happens, you got to overcome it though," Kara told him gently, and she leaned against him.

Clark felt something soft press against his back when she leaned against him.

"Sorry," Kara said, she thought that she might have invaded Clark's personal bubble a bit too much.

"Don't be," Clark said and he looked out into the open. He wished he could fly to the highest heights but there was something that held him back from achieving that greatest achievement.

"I really am," Kara said, biting down on her lip firmly and she really wished that she could cause some kind of breakthrough for Kal-El, but it just wasn't happening for him.

"Maybe I should think happy thoughts," Clark told her.

Kara frowned. "I think that would be funny if I got the reference."

Kara thought that they would need all of the help that they could get against the Phantoms. The blonde looked around and wondered where they were.

They could be anywhere on the planet. They might have caused havoc already.

Clark thought along the same line that she did. "We got to find out if anything out of the ordinary can happen…..can the Fortress track the Phantoms?"

"If only it was that simple," Kara said and Clark's face fell. "What you can do is pinpoint any problem areas…any mass murders…"

"And I'll find my Phantoms," Clark said, and he wasted too much time already. He turned over to the Fortress computer and frowned. "I just hope that they haven't hurt too many people."

Kara commented in a soft voice, "I hope that they didn't as well."

Her sigh escaped and she waited to see Clark who was able to find anything.

These criminals they ranged from brutish barbarians to criminal masterminds. Kara could only begin to guess what their intentions are for as long as they were outside of the Phantom Zone.

"I'd ask if there's any luck," Kara whispered lightly in his ear.

"There isn't," Clark told her, but then he frowned. "Wait a minute, I've got something."

"What?" Kara asked, not wanting to be waiting in suspense.

Clark paused and stared at the image. He tried to figure out a way to blow it up.

"Could you enhance the image?" Clark asked the Fortress. He added as an afterthought. "Please."

The image popped up on the screen. It was extremely faint still despite the enhancements of the Fortress. His keen vision was able to pinpoint what he needed to see and he frowned deeply.

"You've got to be kidding me," Clark muttered underneath his breath.

"What?" Kara asked with interest.

"It's Raya!" Clark yelled, unable to believe it.

He thought that she gave her life to save him from the Phantoms. So he could escape from the Phantom Zone unscathed.

"Raya?" Kara asked in confusion. It struck her instantly. "You don't mean the girl that followed Jor-El around like a lost puppy dog?"

Lara joked that she would keep Raya as a pet and gift her to Kal-El when he became an adult. Kara amused herself from the memory of a happier time. It was part of what kept her sane and gave her hope that everything was going to come out okay.

"She became his lab assistant eventually, or that's what she said, Jor-El sent her to the Phantom Zone," Clark told her, acting is if the man or rather the AI wasn't in the room to begin with.

"Hmmm," Kara muttered underneath her breath.

Clark was dumbstruck. "Was that a good hmmm or a bad hmmm?"

"No, just a hmmm, but I suppose that the man himself wouldn't want to enlighten us on his intentions," Kara said, her arms folded over each other. Jor-El remained silent as could be. "Yeah, I didn't think he would."

Kara sighed.

"We're going to have to find her, because her being alone on Earth is just as dangerous as any of us being alone here," Clark said to her.

Kara understood what Clark meant suddenly. There was a lot to say about there being strength in numbers and Kara felt that she understood that one hundred percent.

"So, are we waiting for anything in particular?" Kara asked.

Clark shook his head, now was the time for decisive action. He could worry about hashing things out later.

* * *

Raya shook her head, the cobwebs slowly clearing from her mind. The fact that she spent so much time in the Phantom Zone weighed on her. Most people who weren't already insane most certainly were with the exposure in the Zone. It was not a place that was intended for anyone but the most hardened of criminals.

You had to be as wicked as the worst to even survive in there. Raya somehow kept herself in check by remembering that she was sent in there for a reason. She couldn't even fathom what Jor-El thought or if he believed that his son would go down the road that he did. Now that he did, Raya felt a desire to help him in any way that she could.

She was on Earth and the yellow sun radiation just slowly took its hold on her. She couldn't recall off hand how long it took to be empowered completely.

The fact she moved from one end of the field to the next at super speed encouraged her. She didn't know where she would go from here.

Her hearing was sharp and she heard the sounds of a busy city. It wasn't exactly like Krypton for obvious reasons. It was close enough to breed familiarity to her.

'_After all of the time in the Phantom Zone, any sound other than the one that could end your life is welcomed,' _she thought to herself. The blonde stepped forward into the light.

She had a good idea where Kal-El would be there.

She had to find him before one of the Phantoms found him. They would be after his blood just for the sheer principle of it.

That would be the least of what they were after. The whispers of the Phantom Zone of being the one to take down the House of El were constant. Raya kept a low profile because of that. If anyone discovered her connection, that could be a problem.

She stopped and paused, she could have sworn that she saw something.

"I figured that we'd be running into each other soon. Earth's a long way from the Phantom Zone, isn't it?"

Raya blinked suddenly and she looked up. She spotted the young man approaching her and she couldn't believe it.

"So, you found me," Raya said and she thought that it would make things a lot easier.

Clark smiled when he approached her. He could tell the blonde looked a bit disoriented. She might have held it together better than someone else did.

"Yes, and just in time before someone else did," Clark told her and he approached her.

Raya was still dressed in the same clothes that she wore in the Phantom Zone and she looked extremely conspicuous because of that fact.

"We're going to have to get you back to the Fortress, and get you a change of clothes so you blend in a lot better," another voice said and Raya realized that they weren't alone. "Because, I think you're able to figure out that unless you're going to a costume party or something, you won't be able to blend in here."

"Kara, is that you?" Raya asked in a surprised voice.

"Yes, it's me," Kara said and she smiled. "So, I've got to ask you a question."

Raya was all ears.

"Jor-El didn't fill you with tales about how I was coming to Earth to kill Kal-El and how he should be protected at all costs because of his destiny," Kara said and Raya blinked and shook her head. "Because, you know that I shouldn't be confused with my father….who might have done such a thing if it interfered with his plans."

"Jor-El's father instigated a lot of that trouble," Raya said calmly, not holding Kara accountable for anything that happened in that family feud. "But…..Kal-El didn't mention anything about you."

"This is recent, she just came out of the ship," Clark informed her and the three of them prepared to make the trip to the Fortress. "Just in time."

"Agreed," Raya said, nodding her head.

"I wished I was out of there much sooner," Kara commented. "I would have been able to guide him through his roughest years and would have been able to train him through certain things that he needs to know."

Raya understood what she was talking about, even though she could tell that the Last Son of Krypton was out of the loop.

That would be an extremely fun education when they got around to it.

"We're all that's left that isn't a resident in the Phantom Zone," Raya commented.

"As far as we know," Clark said and Kara nodded in agreement.

"As far as we know," Kara said, there had bene rumors, whispers about Krypton forming some kind of colony away from the Planet.

She hadn't been able to confirm or deny that fact one way or another. To be honest if they were still out there, they had likely moved on in their own way after the planet's demise. They found their home and Kara found hers.

"But, regardless every second that these Phantoms remain on this planet, the humans here could be in dire danger and they won't even know about it," Raya warned them. "Not all of the criminals in there are those Shadow Wraiths. Some of them can blend in and others can warp the minds of people."

Clark looked up into the sky and stared out into the wide world that was.

"We start finding them and bringing them down…..and we need a way to bring them back into the Phantom Zone," Clark told them and he was open for suggestions. His father's crystal sucked Zod's essence from Lex, but would that work for full bodied Zoners?

"You still have it, don't you?" Raya asked him and he nodded. "Then it should work."

Clark tricked Zod into position because of the man's arrogance. Something told him that it wasn't going to work that easily.

"Your solar reserves are more than ours are, so you should be stronger," Raya informed him.

"Unless there's something holding him back," Kara interjected after a second.

Clark figured that he should embrace who he was fully. It was a start. He closed his eyes and got into a moment.

"I am Clark Kent," he muttered underneath his breath. "I am also Kal-El. I can be both."

"Yes, you can," Kara agreed with him and she took his hand and squeezed it firmly.

Raya's eyes followed and she sensed a deep connection between the two of them. It was hard to explain how she sensed it, it was just that she sensed it.

"So, are you ready?" Raya asked him.

"Do I have a choice?" Clark asked.

"You always do," Kara interjected. "But, I think that you won't let yourself live with making the wrong choice."

Clark laughed, it was almost like she knew him already.

"You get that from your mother," Kara said and she leaned in, giving him a soft kiss on the cheek.

Clark felt her lips touch his cheek and he felt a sudden burst of warmth spread over his body.

Raya watched him and frowned. Kara caught the front.

"Sorry Raya, I forgot that you'd like to be involved," Kara said and she stepped over and gave Raya a light kiss on the cheek as well.

Raya smiled. "You haven't changed much."

"Well to be fair, I've been in stasis, and I don't think that I could change much in a day," Kara said and Clark cleared his throat. "Yeah, I think we've wasted way too much time."

Clark's phone interrupted their attempts to go off. He figured that he had been off for at least a day or more by this point. He was honestly surprised that some kind of search party wasn't performed.

"I better answer that, I don't want people freaking out," Clark told both of them and they nodded in understanding. He answered the phone. "Oh, hi, Chloe, you're never going to believe what happened to me today."

**To Be Continued. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: Phantom in a Haystack.**

Phantoms were an accurate description in most cases. You can no sooner grasp them as much as you can grasp the air. Raya had reservations about leading Kal-El towards that backdoor out of the Phantom Zone. It may have been created for his use and his use alone. That didn't really make her at ease if at all.

The humans had an expression about what was done was done. And now several Phantoms were on Earth. Some were a physical threat, others were a threat of the mind, and others just wanted to see the universe burn one world at a time. Regardless of the reasons, there was one thing that every single prisoner in the Phantom Zone had in common.

They were all danger.

"The Phantom Zone can turn the worst of the worst even worse," Raya said more to herself.

"How did you keep your sanity after all of those yearS?"

Raya turned around and saw Kara standing next to her.

"I'm not sure I did, if I'm willing to fight them after all that," Raya said and Kara stepped towards her.

"Well, you're in some pretty good company," Kara said and she sat down across from the woman. She invited Raya to take a seat and she did in good grace. "They could be anywhere, even right under our nose. Kal-El thought that I was a phantom at first, and attacked me until I proved otherwise."

"Well, that proves that he's properly paranoid, but after what I feel that he's been through, I couldn't blame him," Raya said. "His training didn't go as planned."

"Things might have been a bit better if I was there, as Lara had planned," Kara said and she wasn't about to deny one fact. She felt bad. "And he can't fly and he's not as strong as he should be."

"That doesn't make any sense, at this point, he should be really strong," Raya replied with a frown. "He shouldn't…."

"I don't know," Kara said, she had her ideas and absolutely none of them was something that she considered to be a favorable one.

Speaking of the young man, Clark returned. Kara was glad to see him there.

"Well, that was a fun conversation, and…she kind of made me promise to meet both of you, because she wants to help, if she can," Clark told her.

"Who?" Kara asked.

"Chloe…..she's helped me out before, and I think that…"

"Do you think that it's wise to put any of the humans in danger?" Raya asked her.

She didn't mean to sound like she did through her tone.

"I'm not going to throw her directly in the line of fire," Clark said, thinking that Chloe was capable enough of throwing herself into the line of fire herself. "And she's capable enough to know what she's getting herself into."

"Maybe, if it was a question of her capabilities," Raya said and her voice was more gentle. "I know that you have walked in both worlds, as how they wanted. But…..they're as fragile as we are underneath the red sun."

Raya didn't want to bring up the point that some of these phantoms could have also been more empowered underneath a yellow sun. She didn't want to make Kal-El feel any guiltier as her.

"Maybe she can help, within reason," Kara said quietly. "I mean, we're not throwing her out there in the line of fire, and I know that Clark won't do anything like that."

"No, I wouldn't do that," Clark said.

"He wouldn't, but I'm sure that she might if she jumped to help you in any way despite their being too much danger," Raya said. "Unless humans got more territorial about their planet than I thought that they did."

"Wouldn't Kryptonians?" Clark asked her.

Kara frowned and she looked like she swallowed rancid milk. "We…..might, but we shouldn't worry about such emotions that distract us from our goals. We all have a purpose of our life and it is not to worry about that."

Kara said this statement with so much sarcasm that it could not be mistaken at all.

"I'm beginning to see why Krypton blew up," Clark said calmly.

"It's because of that, yes, we could have listened to the warning signs sooner, we might have been able to save the planet," Raya said, but she wondered sometimes if Krypton was doomed to explode on that day.

Jor-El wouldn't give up such a thing, neither would Lara, and neither would Alura. Most worried about the moment in front of them, as opposed to the great and glorious future that the planet could have.

Clark refused to let this planet be destroyed.

* * *

"Chloe, this situation might be more dangerous than I thought," Clark told her without any preamble.

"Hi, Clark, I'm doing fine as well," Chloe said to her.

"I was being serious," Clark told her.

"Yeah, I can tell, you look about ready to punch someone," Chloe said and she took half of a step back. "And you haven't found any of them, have you?"

"No, I haven't," Clark answered her and he saw Kara and Raya walk into the picture, regarding the other blonde through shifted eyes.

"And this must be your super powered back up," Chloe said, Clark didn't give too many details, other than he found help.

"Raya, this is Chloe, Chloe is Raya, Kara this is Chloe, Chloe this is Kara," Clark said making the introductions.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Kara said in a voice and she grabbed her hand firmly to shake it. "And thank you for keeping an eye out for…..Clark when he got in trouble."

"So wait, you knew him….on…..oooh," Chloe said. She was happy for Clark.

Hopefully now that he had someone that could keep up with him, two people at least, that would keep his mind off of the relationship drama that plagued him for years. Something that he didn't need to think about at all when people of the Earth is in danger.

"Oh, what do you mean, oh?" Clark asked her.

"Well it's just that….it's good to have someone around like you that's not of the detached artificial intelligence variety," Chloe said to her.

Raya smiled at that, she really wished that Kal-El knew his father when he was alive and real. She had been sworn not to bring that fact up because that would clash with what he needed to do.

"But, you need to find these phantoms and they could be anywhere," Chloe said, sensing the tension in the situation.

"We've already got a lead on one, but they were gone the moment that we got there," Clark told her and Chloe opened her mouth and nodded.

"Which means they haven't quite found their place here on Earth," Kara chimed in.

"I don't know, I wouldn't poke a dangerous animal with a stick," Chloe said and Clark raised his eyebrow. "I wouldn't poke a dangerous animal with a stick when I didn't have a good reason to poke a dangerous animal with a stick."

Clark realized that some of the phantoms could be hiding in plane sight. They might have taken on the form of normal people.

"I'd say get a full list of all of the occupants of the Phantom Zone, and cross-reference that, but that would be too much to hope for, wouldn't it?" Chloe asked.

"Given that there were numerous planets who used the Phantom Zone as their dumping ground and didn't cross reference each other's notes, you're right," Kara said and Chloe sighed.

"Of course I'm right," Chloe said and she gave a pained sigh. "How many are we dealing with?"

"There could be dozens here on Earth right now," Raya said and Clark turned to her not.

"Only just about a dozen, thankfully," Clark said and he placed his arm around her, wrapping her in tight to him. "Not that's much better."

"No, it's not," Raya agreed and suddenly, Clark could hear something in his ear.

"And behold, the most obnoxious noise in the entire world," Chloe said but Clark rushed outside.

Kara and Raya followed behind him and Clark made his way to the edge of a field to stand next to him.

"Chloe, sorry to leave you hanging, but that's my Phantom early warning system," Clark told her.

"Since when did you…"

"Since yesterday when I figured out a way to reconfigure a part of the Fortress to track the similar kind of energy that came from me after I came out of the Phantom Zone," Clark said and he sneezed once again.

"Wait, you're sick?" Chloe asked.

"Nothing but a cold," Clark commented and he sneezed again, causing a large chunk of the ground to fly into the air.

"Or a new power," Kara whispered out of the corner of her eye. Enhanced breath, that could be useful, if he didn't bring up half of Smallville when he huffed and he puffed.

"Yes, or a new power," Clark agreed but he shook his head. "Anyway, any strange activity that might be a Phantom, it goes off…..only in proximity to me, I guess I need to reconfigure it so the wrong person doesn't hear it."

"Yeah that'd be wise, I thought it almost melted my eardrum," Chloe said, rubbing the side of her neck. "So anything?"

"We're looking, but it's been another duck and run from one of the Phantoms," Clark said and he tilted his head.

"These things would be a lot easier to pinpoint when…..when there is a blood soaked trail of carnage," Raya said and that sounded far grimmer coming out of her mouth than it did in her head.

"We'd like to avoid that if at all possible," Clark said.

"Not saying that I'd want it easier, but it would be easier," Raya said.

Kara tried to tap into her enhanced senses. It was quite a trip to try and use them. There was a difference between using them in a simulator and using them on Earth. The blonde's frown deepened when she started to scan every single inch of the ground.

"If you're going to try and hear something, try and just focus on one sound," Clark told her.

"Otherwise you'll hear every single piece of petty gossip that you couldn't even pretend to care about, I know," Kara said and her hearing reached.

The blonde picked up a seed that had been dropped on the ground.

"That's what you found?" Clark asked.

"Someone's either getting sloppy or they're leading us a trail," Raya whispered. "They want to kill the remaining Kryptonians."

"Oh, that's it?" Clark asked, and he flipped the seed over in his hand when Kara handed to it. "It sounds like its alive."

"That's because it is alive," Kara commented grimly. "The person behind this was exiled to the Phantom Zone when she tried to replace everyone on her home planet with plants."

"She preferred them more to people, said that she understood them," Raya explained.

"So, she's just your usual eco-terrorist turned up to about twenty," Chloe chimed in over the phone.

"And she knows that we're around somewhere, she hates Kryptonians," Raya whispered underneath her breath.

"Well if she puts innocent people in danger, I'm not too fond of her either," Kara said, folding her arms.

Clark smiled, she said pretty much what he was thinking.

"She has complete mastery over plants," Raya explained. "And much like you underneath the yellow sun, she has similar strength and abilities."

"Great," Clark said and he eyed the vines on the ground quite nervously.

Kara and Raya saw what he was doing and he could see that they moved.

"She'd get along with that one plant lady from Gotham," Chloe muttered underneath her breath. She shook her head. "I'll see what I can dig up….wow, inadvertent plant pun."

Clark spun around and saw one of the vines try to impale him. His heat vision sliced it and caused it's ashened remains to go to the ground.

"Don't let it touch you!" Kara yelled, and the superfast vine tried to impale her.

She was just a little bit faster than the vines and she dodged them when they slammed down onto each other.

"Figured that much out!" Clark grunted and he rolled underneath the attack.

Raya was about ready to be entangled in the vines. Clark manipulated his heat vision to burn them.

"It doesn't seem to be doing that well," Raya said, and Kara grabbed both of them, and hoisted them up.

"I don't suppose a really strong weed killer would do any good?" Clark asked both of the girls.

"I doubt it very much," Kara said in a complete dead pan.

She managed to keep herself complete at ease.

"Maybe if the three of us do it together, we can take them out," Raya said, frowning in response.

"Maybe," Kara suggested, that was easier said than done to time something like that. There was something about that made her doubt that they could accomplish their goals.

They had to try. The three of them had their eyes glow in synergy and there were a set of blasts from the heat vision.

"We're off time!" Raya yelled at them.

Clark could feel a twitching in his nose and he took a deep breath. He rarely had a cold so this was…..

He sneezed, and suddenly a jet of cold ice went out of his mouth. Kara watched and the plants wilted underneath his breath.

"Super ice breath?" Kara asked. "You didn't mention that you had that power before."

"First I knew of it," Clark said and the three of them touched down to the ground.

Kara took the frozen vine and lifted it up. Her mother knew all about the most exotic plants whatsoever so she would be taking a nice and long look at it.

"Clark, are you okay, is everyone okay?" Chloe asked.

"Super ice breath saved us," Clark said.

Chloe was caught dumbstruck by this. "Um, that wasn't in your power set this morning, was it?"

"No, Chlo, it wasn't, and I'm pretty sure that I'd have regular super breath as well," Clark said, deciding to defer to the experts. The experts shrugged.

"Powers vary depending on the person," Kara admitted, her eyes turning around and almost expecting the vines to come back around and stab them.

"She's correct, and given your unique biology, both of you have more potential than other Kryptonians do," Raya said, and she left the statement hanging. She included herself in this group. The frown crossed over her face and she gave an extremely long sigh.

"Both of you did well as well, and we'll find her, and bring her in," Clark said.

"I just hope that none of these Zoners team up," Kara whispered.

"I doubt it, some of them wouldn't want to share the glory and some of them are too…..unbalanced to work together with anyone," Raya said. That might have been the same small favor that they had, but they took it.

"Right, it's back to the Fortress with us then," Clark said and he listened to the early warning alarm.

So far he heard nothing, no alarm that would hint that the Phantom was on the move.

"Now that we got a hint of her DNA, we should be able to track her more easily," Kara said, carefully holding the seed that she had.

"It shouldn't be too hard," Raya admitted to them. "She might be hanging around an area of a green house or somewhere along those lines."

"Hmmm," Clark commented, he didn't say anything, but that would narrow things down. "Chloe, could you check on something for me? While I check on something from our end…..and don't open the door for anyone."

"There's something you should know Clark, it's regarding L….."

"It can wait, Chloe," Clark said, cutting her off. He had far important things to deal with.

"Right," Chloe said, surprised about the firmness that he took on this issue.

He was focused, some might say obsessed about bringing the Zoners down. You couldn't deny that.

* * *

"This is the place," Clark said when they reached outside of where they wanted to go. "Now, this looks like a trap."

"But we're still going to go inside anyway, aren't we?" Raya asked, she was almost afraid of this.

There were many things that she enjoyed about Kal-El having a human upbringing. It gave him another perspective that most Kryptonians didn't have. They followed their own narrowed minded path. There was one path that would go down the entire world. If people didn't follow the path, well they were radicals that could and should be punished.

That being said, Raya didn't necessarily see that to be a good path.

"Do we have any choice?" Kara asked, and she was confident that this plan would work.

She was gaining more confidence in her own abilities.

"We always have a choice," Raya commented.

"But, it's a matter of making the right choice," Clark said and he placed his hand on the edge of the green house.

It looked like a calm and friendly area. It was extremely tranquil and there shouldn't be a care in the world. There was one thing that Clark could take to the bank and that was appearances could and would be deceiving.

His finger brushed against the side of the green house and he could see some rather beautiful looking plants.

"Beauty doesn't mean that it isn't dangerous," Raya muttered underneath her breath.

"The more beautiful it is, the more dangerous it can be," Clark said, catching her works and he turned around to both of the girls. "You two should be the greatest proof to that fact, you know."

"Oh yes, we know," Kara agreed and she could hear something off in the distance. "If we're lucky, we'll be able to take her by surprise."

Clark was not going to say anything, but he knew for a fact that they weren't going to be that lucky. There was a rustling of leaves underneath him when he approached his adversary.

"So, the last Kryptonians, cold and sterile as usual."

"You've done some terrible things, so you need to be punished," Clark said.

"I was trying to make the world, the universe a better place, and look around you, you've entered a place where you're not going to be able to escape alive," the voice said, and a fairly attractive woman with reddish brown hair stepped forward. She had a kind and sweet looking demeanor, but there was something dancing in her eyes that proved to be unsettling. "Just think, the world will be perfect, if you just stand aside. But Kryptonians have to interfere in everything and interfere in all my plans."

"When those plans put innocent people in danger, we have a right," Kara said and she prepared to shut it down.

It would be a good time to super ice breath these things, only she couldn't consciously use that power. She didn't know if Raya could and she wasn't sure if Clark could do so as well.

"People yes, innocents, hardly, given how they rolled over the beauty of their world just to build more extravagant buildings to sate their ego," the woman said and she waved her hand and the vines shot out.

The Kryptonians dodged them and used their heat vision to cut on through. The attacks very nearly overwhelmed them.

"The heat vision won't work anymore," Clark said and he wanted to throw his hands into the air in abject frustration and rip through the vines. Somehow he managed to calm himself in.

"Listen, you should just accept this, and soon humans will be replaced by something more beautiful," the girl said in a soft spoken voice, but the most soft spoken of voices held the greatest hints of malice between her eyes.

"She's out of her mind," Kara said and she tried to attack. A wall of spiky vines popped up. "We could use some added help right about now."

"Yeah, I know, but I haven't had time to perfect…..perfect…..perfect…." Clark said and he sneezed, causing the super breath to blow out and rip through the vines.

The Zoner's eyes narrowed.

"You destroyed them, you're nothing more than the butchers who tried to take me away from my world after I made it a better place," she whispered and her hands became completely numb.

"She felt that one, didn't she?" Clark asked.

"We got to get her into the Zone, otherwise we have no chance!" Raya yelled and she nearly was impaled by one of the vines.

Clark blocked the vines and wrenched it back at the woman in an attempt to catch her off guard.

"I'm going to take you all down," the woman whispered. "I see your lying eyes, you're the son of Jor-El, and his father was even worse than the son."

"That's nice, I'm paying for something that my father and grandfather did when they were alive," Clark said and Kara pushed him down.

"And Alura's daughter…..did you really think that I would leave without saying goodbye to you?"

"My mother told you what you were doing would destroy the ecosystem more than help it, Gloria," Kara said, recognizing this piece of work right now.

She started out meaning well and then the best intentions often went awry.

The woman, Gloria, rushed Kara, in an attempt to take her out. Clark blocked her attack for a moment.

That allowed Kara to jump up and kick her in the face.

"So, where did you learn that one?" Clark asked her and Kara turned towards him with a grin.

"I'm not completely useless…" Kara said and she watched and saw several razor sharp vines shoot towards Clark.

He used his body to block the attacks and the vines spiked in his back. It looked like it hurt like hell, because it did.

Clark turned around and the gashes went down his back. He turned to face Gloria and his eyes lit up.

"You'll be the perfect person for me to seed," she whispered and a malicious smile spread over her face. The woman waved her hands into the air and she launched the vines directly at Kal-El.

Kal dodged the vines before they could impale into him a second time. Kara shot heat vision.

It was a good effort and it caused everything to burst into flames around them.

"NO!" Gloria yelled at the top of her lungs.

Raya swooped in from behind her, and slammed her fist into Gloria's back, and then Kara caught her in mid air with her shoulder.

"You're going home, now, to a place that's as barren as your soul," Clark said, blood dripping down from his mouth.

"No, you're going to have to kill me before I go back to the Phantom Zone," she said and she tried to attack him.

He jabbed the crystal into her chest and caused a miniature portal to open. Kal held his hand on the crystal and it vibrated.

It kept vibrating until the moment where he collapsed down onto the ground. The wind was knocked out of him and blood poured disgustingly from his mouth. He spat it down onto the ground and shivered.

"Kal," Raya murmured underneath her breath.

That was one down, but at what price?

"Help me get these panels open," Kara said, despite her super speed, she wasn't working fast enough.

These plants were tainted with Kryptonite, small trace amounts of it, but Kal had it stabbed right into his blood stream.

"This is taking too long," Kara said, and she grabbed Kal, cradling him in her arms.

She brought him closer to the sun and caused the sun's healing rays to invigorate his body. She clutched him close into her chest and waited.

"Kara, I'm fine," Clark said and he held his head up.

"You weren't a minute ago," Kara said and she wanted to get him checked out.

Lara was a doctor and she would have a fit and a half if she caught sight of what Kal-El did. Kara trembled when she held the young man in her arms.

"We better head to the Fortress, make sure he's nursed back to health," Raya said and Kara nodded.

"You know if you're going to nurse me, you're going to need the proper uniform," Clark said, wondering if he got hit harder in the head than he thought.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, and you better hope that I don't accidentally drop you," Kara said, grinning back at him. "And only if you cooperate, do exactly as we say, and don't put yourself into situations that will get you killed."

"I can't make that promise," Clark said and Kara gave a prominent sigh, and she took him to the Fortress.

One Phantom down, a few more to go, and things were only going to get even more dangerous from here.

Especially when word got to their enemies that they were on this Phantom hunting spree. They would have to deal with this when the time came though.

**To Be Continued. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four: Thinning the Herd.**

"Just for future reference, throwing yourself in the line of fine is not an ideal way to protect someone," Kara said.

She didn't want to sound too preachy about what she was saying. At the same time though, she didn't want Clark, Kal, whoever, to get hurt. He might have been invulnerable to a lot of things, but he wasn't invincible.

"The Green Meteor Rocks could be a problem," Raya said. "Those plants had trace elements of them, and they hurt him."

"As much as I've been exposed to those things, I swear I should have had some kind of immunity to them by now," Kal said.

Kara stroked her chin and looked thoughtful. "Yeah, you should have some kind of immunity to them, but you really don't."

The young blonde racked her brain as she treated Clark's wounds. First she had to make sure that all of the trace elements of Kryptonite were out of his blood stream. She realized that getting impaled with a shrade of Kryptonite would poison a normal human as well. It would be far worse on a Kryptonian.

"So, do I check out?" Clark asked.

"Your mother was a doctor, and mine was a scientist, I'd like to think that I would have picked out a few things from them," Kara said with a smile on her face, and she had Clark shirtless. His shirt was destroyed by the vines anyway. "Thankfully it didn't cut too deep where it punctured into your veins."

Kara didn't much fancy her chances performing surgery. Perhaps that was her, but she really didn't think that we should do.

"All of the knowledge of an advanced civilization, and you would think that there's a way to block radiation," Clark said and Raya and Kara looked at him. "Is there?"

"Did you check?" Raya asked. "There should be numerous shields. Some of them constructive and some of them light weight and invisible, where you can wear over your clothes and it wouldn't get in your way."

"And then there is nano-technology that you can inject in yourself, although that is high tech, and may take longer to whip up," Kara said.

"So, I think that I should find some kind of stop gap situation, until I'm able to look up the more advanced technology," Clark said to both of them and the girls nodded in response.

"That would work," Kara suggested.

The problem was they didn't have time to whip up an advanced shield to block the radiation from the Kryptonite. Especially when a more primitive one would do, and Clark got to his feet.

"Here," Raya said, handing Clark a spare shirt with great regret.

Kara frowned, but she couldn't be distracted.

"There were three different types of Kryptonite that were discovered by the studies of the planet…"

"Red, green, and black," Clark suggested.

"Black?" Raya asked.

"Yes, it causes a person to split in half, forming a good copy and an evil copy, but there needs to be certain conditions met," Kara said, her mother had found out that one. "There's also blue and there's also gold."

"And I forgot silver, and…" Clark said and he stopped. "You know, I wouldn't be surprised if there was pink Kryptonite as well."

"I wouldn't know what that did, if there was," Raya said. He might say that statement in jest, but she wouldn't be surprised.

Radiation was unpredictable if nothing else.

"The material in that should be found on Earth, I'd have to check around," Clark said. "Or rather I'd have Chloe check around. It won't come cheap."

"You know, if you're strapped for cash you could just take a piece of coal and crush it into a diamond," Kara suggested to him and Clark looked at her like she grew two heads. Kara shrugged. "They're supposed to be pretty valuable on Earth, aren't they?"

"Yes, they are," Clark said, and he could see where she was going at.

The Fortress lit to light once again.

The good news that they had taken one of the Phantom down, and it had been a stroke of fortune that they took down the first Phantom so easily.

They doubted very much that they would have the capabilities to take down the rest of them that easily.

"Danger approaches," Raya said and she could hear the early Phantom warning alarm fire off. The energy that they took was leading them right to them.

"But….it just faded off of the map," Clark said.

He figured out what that meant quickly. The Phantom decided to take a more human form.

"The trail is still faint," Raya said and she worked herself forward towards the screen. "And now it's…..gone."

"At least it doesn't have a corporeal form," Kara suggested, she tried to find a silver lining in the damaged cloud.

"Maybe," Clark said and there was a second where he thought about it. "But we better track it down."

"And we'll see what we can do about the radiation shields," Kara reminded Clark.

Clark hadn't forgotten about that.

* * *

Raya felt an incoming amount of dread when they figured out who they were dealing with. Of all of the Phantoms to escape, he would have to be the one to slip out the back door and cause them this grief.

"So what are we dealing with?" Clark asked her.

"Trouble," Raya said, and Kara raised an eyebrow. "He's what you would call a serial killer on Earth."

"Wouldn't that be the classification of many people that came out of the Phantom Zone?" Clark asked her.

"Some have gone in there for crimes of accidental murder, others for War crimes, but this fugitive is one who slaughtered countless on his own planet," Raya explained to him. "And he had no empathy for any victims. Some of them he attacked in their beds and he had the ability to vaporize them. They didn't have a chance to survive. There were never any remains to bury."

Kara realized who she was talking about. "Surely not….."

"Baern," Raya whispered in a feared voice. "He took his own brand of violence to Krypton when he was finally exiled or at least tried to."

Clark paused and he wondered about something. The two of them were looking at Clark like he was in mortal danger and maybe he was.

"I'm going to guess and say that my father was the one that put him away in the Phantom Zone," Clark said and both of the girls exchanged a nervous look towards each other and nodded.

"It was Jor-El, yes, and he vowed revenge on Jor-El the moment he was stripped of his body and his spirit was sent in the Phantom Zone," Raya said. She didn't think that it was sufficient for the mountain of crimes this horrific individual committed. Maybe that was just her opinion however.

Clark got a call from Chloe. He half expected it to be bad news.

"So, what's the damage, Chloe?"

"Unless you have a couple hundred thousand lying around, I don't think that you'll be able to get that kind of material any time soon," Chloe suggested to him. "Especially given that it's some of the rarest on Earth."

"Not so rare on Krypton if they used it for standard radiation shielding," Clark commented. If he was still friends with Lex, he might have been able to get it. But that would require a whole lot of explanation that Clark didn't think that Lex needed to know.

"Would standard radiation shielding even work?" Chloe asked.

Kara and Raya was looked to for advice.

"Could you give me the phone for a second?" Kara asked, and Clark did so. He and Raya walked off to continue their investigation. "The unique properties of the Kryptonite would burn through the standard radiation shield. Unless you want to wear a clunky suit that inhabits mobility, and if it gets a hole in it…."

"Yeah, it's pretty much smoked, I get that," Chloe said.

"Just figure out where we can find some, and we'll do the rest," Kara said.

"You're not going to…" Chloe said.

"No, not that extreme, but there are other ways," Kara said. There was technology at the Fortress where if they could acquire even the smallest sample of the material, they could replicate it. "We're kind of in the middle of a Phantom Hunt."

"Right, I'll let you know if I find out anything on my end," Chloe responded, and she said goodbye.

"She'll find out more later," Kara said, and she placed her hand underneath her chin, nervously biting down on her lip.

"That's just all we can do now, I guess," Clark said. "And without us finding this Phantom, we're just playing a waiting game."

"Oh don't worry," Raya said and she placed her hand lightly on his shoulder. "I'm sure that he'll find us first."

Clark never thought that a statement would be more foreboding, but he guessed that it would be.

"Guess we're going to meet halfway," Clark said.

He wasn't one hundred percent healed yet, but he couldn't wait for himself to be so.

"Let's go," Kara said, she felt nervous being in the middle of the field like this.

They felt like sitting ducks and after what happened to Clark earlier, she didn't want them to be sitting ducks out there.

X-X-X

Baern found himself escape the Phantom Zone and he took a vessel. It wasn't the strongest or most durable of vessels. It was just a fledging of a child. It was weak, but it would have to do.

The moment that he found at the son of Jor-El had been placed inside the Phantom Zone, he hungered for revenge, revenge against his jailer.

His eyes glowed when he walked quicker, his footsteps kicking up. He thought that he would meet him. Before the elements of the Phantom Zone consumed him and drove him mad. Much to his agitation, Baern didn't locate the son of his jailer. He escaped and left him hanging there.

"So be it," he whispered, and his voice dripped with pure harshness.

He could see this world and it was ripe for his kind of destruction. They couldn't put up any more of a resistance than barbarians with rocks and sticks could.

He sensed that they were close by, but there was something else that was close by. An object of great power that would make him completely invincible, for this body had limitations. If he could alter it slightly, he would have his full powers.

"I will crush them," Baern whispered, and he lifted his hand.

He slammed one of their primitive vehicles with the palm of his hand. Energy flowed through his hand and it exploded.

His face curled into a wild and wicked grin.

"That's perfect," he whispered.

He needed more power. The alien ship, it was close by, and there was someone who had a box of his choosing. He lifted his hand up and knew that anyone in his way would be crushed like that.

A super powerful blur rushed into him and took him completely out. He landed onto the ground, his vessel cracking against the ground.

"You know, we can make this easy or hard, you either surrender, or you go back to the Phantom Zone, that's your choice," Clark said, and he grabbed the young man by the shirt.

"The son of Jor-El," Baern whispered when he looked at him. His eyes glowed. "I expected you to be taller."

He kicked Clark in the chest and landed onto his face. This form had mobility and it could jump high. That proved to be a useful pawn after all. His hands lifted up and he slammed them down across the ground.

The ground rocked underneath Clark's feet and he avoided the hands of Baern. He tried to knock him onto his back.

"You know, you should have waited for us," Kara said, and she jumped up.

Her foot connected with the back of the enemy's head.

"And the daughter of Alura, well isn't that a treat?" Baern asked and he saw Raya. "And Jor-El's lap dog."

Baern flexed his fingers tightly together. If they gave him half of the chance, he would crush them all.

"It's over," Clark said.

"You know, it's just beginning," Baern said and he jumped into the air. "And I think two of you are air born, aren't you?"

"Not all of us," Kara said and she jumped up.

She had to remember not to hurt the vessel. She could still hear a heart beat coming from the other side of the man's chest. So it was not some corpse made from a shell, or at least that's what her impression was.

Kara fired a roundhouse punch towards her enemy. He blocked her hand and twisted her arm around her back.

"I think that you should work on some better aim," Baern whispered, and he drilled Kara down face first onto the ground.

The blonde bounced back up and she looked injured. She thought that could have worked.

Clark slammed him down to the ground, but he was blasted in the chest.

"This is almost sad," Baern said and he could feel the power short out from his hands. No matter what he tried, he couldn't adopt a finishing blow.

Clark held the crystal, but he jumped up out of the way.

"You can't hit what you can't touch," Baern whispered and he looked down at Clark. He taunted the young man.

There was almost an attempt to beg him to attack. Baern twisted his hand around and made the international sign for Clark to bring it.

Kara decided to redeem herself and raise her hand back. She wanted to knock this bastard back to the Phantom Zone where he belonged.

Her finger flicked at the speed of light and knocked him down onto the ground.

"NOW!" Kara yelled.

Clark rushed over, he thought that this was too easy.

And it was too easy, when he was grabbed by the ankle. Baern tried to force him down to the ground.

Kara took the crystal that flew out of Clark's hand in the battle. She pressed the crystal to the vessel's chest and she reared her head back.

She felt the Phantom pull out of the vessel. Baern screamed when he realized that he had been distracted.

Raya stepped over and could see the young man slumped over onto the ground. His heaving breath nearly caused him to hack up a lung.

"Is he still breathing?" Raya asked.

"Yes, he's still breathing, barely, but he's still breathing," Kara said.

She didn't want to see another innocent perish.

"Who knows how many he killed just for being in his way," Clark said, looking down at the young man.

A quick scan of the crystal indicated that he was completely free of Phantom. He was malnourished and dehydrated. That was only a small price to pay for not being inhabitated by an ax-crazed killer.

"Our team work needs work," Clark said.

"Well to be fair, I think it took us less time to take down this Phantom than it did the other one," Kara said and she looked at Clark's shirt, which had been tattered by an explosive charge. "And look on the bright side, you didn't get burned to a crisp this time."

"You can't even begin to know how happy that makes me," Clark said and there was a note of sincerity in his voice when he spoke.

"I can guess," Kara said and she tightened her arms around him with a hug. She invited Raya to join them.

They realized that some of the danger had passed. There were two Phantoms back to where they belonged.

They realized that they would not rest easily until all of the Phantoms returned to the place where they should be all this time.

"We better get back to base, to see if we can figure out what to do next," Raya said and Kara cleared her throat, looking at the young man on the ground. "And we need to get him to a hospital…..you wouldn't have to…."

"I know where the hospital in Smallville is, don't worry," Clark said. Given the number of friends and former friends that seemed to find their way inside it on a week to week basis, Clark knew the hospital like the back of his hand.

* * *

Kara sat cross legged in the middle of the Fortress. The décor was not up to her standards. All and all, things could have been much worse. At least that's what she thought. Raya had been out, seeing the sights with Clark. She had a few things to go over with him and obviously there was the matter that eventually they would need official documentation to be on Earth.

The blonde looked at the holographic model of the city of Kandor. A beautiful place even though it was destroyed and rebuilt several times. Kara held the holographic disc in her hand. It was a part of her ship that was hidden underneath a cloaking device.

It was something that her mother practically shoved into her hand when Krypton was destroyed. There was also the crystal that she had. The crystal that she nervously didn't want to do anything with.

"Jor-El," Kara said.

"You wish for me to scan the crystal to ensure that there is nothing in it that can harm Kal-El," Jor-El said, his voice calm and clear.

"If you could, that would be great," Kara said. "Look, this was something that his mother created…."

"I was unaware that Lara had created an artificial construct of her own," Jor-El said, his voice cold and barren.

Kara swore that she got more of a chill from him, then the Artic air. She, Raya, and Clark already tinkered with the Fortress enough where Jor-El was nothing more than a slightly unhelpful voice.

"There is much about your wife that you are unaware of," Kara said, and she had a cold snap to her voice when she spoke. "Are you going to help me, or aren't you?"

"I'll see what I can do, Kara," Jor-El said and calmness rang through his voice. "You're afraid that your father tampered with Lara's crystal."

"Zor-El and you never got along, especially the older you got, and that was your father's fault more than anything," Kara said. "But, you should know that anyone who hurts Clark, they're going to have to answer to me first and foremost. That's the promise that I made Lara."

"How far will you go to keep it?' Jor-El asked.

"As far as necessary," Kara said, holding the crystal out. "It's shielded, it shouldn't activate unless Kal-El plugs it into the console. It was tailored to his DNA and his alone."

"Which your father may have counted on if he managed to tamper with the crystal," Jor-El said.

"Why did you do it?" Kara asked.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," Jor-El said.

"Everything mostly, but…..you just happened to send a fake Kryptonian named Kara to entice Clark into returning to you," Kara said, frowning when she crossed her arms. "Is that a coincidence or is that your sick and twisted way of approval?"

"I hoped that my son would achieve his destiny, but there were roadblocks that needed to be removed," Jor-El said.

"Destiny, you act like he doesn't have a choice," Kara said, and she could hear Raya and Clark return.

She didn't know why she even bothered to start this conversation. That's why she decided to end it before she rammed her head into the console repeatedly. The blonde bit down on her lip and sigh.

"You had a discussion with Jor-El, didn't you?" Raya asked, returning to stand behind Kara.

"If that's what you call it, then yes, I had a discussion with him," Kara said, her arms folding over her chest. There was a long sigh that escaped her lips. She wondered why she even bothered sometimes. The only thing it did was prove to drive her completely and utterly mad.

"We looked up some of the material for the shield,' Clark said, trying to get Kara in a better mood. "And we've got some good news."

Kara's ears perked up and she smiled. "Good news, that's great, really that's great."

Kara wished that she would have sounded even more excited. There was something about this news that didn't make her all that excited though.

"I'm glad you look so pleased about it," Raya said, with a smile on her face and Kara shook her head.

"I've very excited, believe me, I am," Kara said, shaking her head.

"We believe you," Raya said, and she smiled.

"So, I suppose that we should tell you about the plan," Clark commented to her and Kara nodded in confirmation.

"That would be advisable, yes," Kara said to him, and the two of them prepared to fill her in.

The material might be tough to acquire, but the reasons for them doing so was to make sure they had limited weaknesses. The Kryptonite was a recurring problem for Clark over the years. It was time for them to solve it.

**To Be Continued. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five: Calm Before the Storm.**

Clark thought about returning to Smallville, even though he should be in the Fortress, monitoring for Phantoms and seeing if anything came through.

"You know, you don't have to shoulder everything," Kara said when she walked next to him. She had her hands on his back firmly. "Raya said that she would monitor things. It's been quiet the last couple of days you know."

Clark knew, and he thought that was a really galling thing. He couldn't quite put his finger on what. The first two Phantoms were trapped in fairly expedited manners. It was to the point where he thought that they might have caught on when he captured the first two.

"Yes, it has," Clark said and Kara firmly grabbed onto his hand. She squeezed his hand tightly and made him look into her eyes.

"You need to relax, I don't know, but you have put a lot of stress on yourself for some reason," Kara said. "Besides the two of us need to talk about something that's way over do. And I'm here to help you…"

"You know I know all about that…"

Kara placed her finger on Clark's lips to silence him. "We'll see….I was supposed to guide you and we'll see what we can do to get your mind back on track. We need to make sure that there's no distractions."

"Have you been talking to Chloe?"

"Maybe I have, but I like to think that I have a power observation over certain things," Kara said, folding her arms when she locked her gaze onto Clark's arms. "And one of those things is that I know when one of my fellow Kryptonians need help. And I know that I'd be failing your mother and mine if I didn't help you."

Kara grabbed Clark over towards the farm by the hand. It was a beautiful and quaint place. There was no one there.

That proved to be really good.

"So, how was Krypton on…"

"Intimacy?" Kara asked him and Clark nodded. "We suppressed our emotions so we didn't get in the way of progress, and that included the love that we had for each other. Everyone served a purpose. Anyone who showed emotions were considered to be misfits in society."

"You can't hide them though," Clark said and he was back onto the couch. Kara backed him in there so fast that he didn't really realize that.

"No more than you can, and sometimes they've muddled your mind," Kara said and she placed her hands on Clark's face. "Which isn't a bad thing. Your emotions define you as much as defile you."

Her soft lips pressed against his quickly. Clark could feel something in his body that he never felt before. Her lips were so perfect, so soft. The solar energy coursing through her body caused her lips to be given an exotic taste.

Kara placed herself onto his lap and deepened the kiss. Her tongue pushed down his throat. She slowly worked his shirt off with a smile on her face. Her hands traced the area around his chest.

"You take good care of yourself, Kal….Clark," Kara said, and she rotated her finger around the area of his chest. She smiled. "But how's your cardiovascular?"

Kara trailed her finger down to the area of his abs. Clark could feel fire going through his body.

"Are you sure that we should be doing this soon?" Clark asked her.

"I don't know, you tell me," Kara said, pushing her hand down his pants. He groaned when she looked into her eyes. "The pleasure in your eyes tells me all you need to know."

She gripped the iron bar in his pants with great skill. Clark could feel her work around him. Slowly she rotated her hand and worked him up.

"Let it go, there's nothing to be ashamed by," Kara whispered, and she worked into his pants. "So it's better than your own hand, isn't it?"

"Yes," Clark grunted when he felt her hand pump him up and down. She worked him slowly and surely. "Yes, oh yes."

"Very well," Kara said, licking the area around her lips. "It's better than anyone else's hand….its my first time, so tell me if I'm going too rough."

"Just….right," Clark groaned, and he could feel the pressure relieved in his pants.

Kara slowly withdrew her hand from his pants. She lifted it up to her face and slowly licked it. The blonde popped her fingers into her mouth and sucked on them.

"Perfectly healthy, trust me," Kara said, a smoldering smile crossing her face. She reached her jacket and slid it off. "And now it's your turn to return the favor."

Kara slipped her top off and Clark saw her glorious C-Cup breast bounce up. They were unbelievable, very firm and perky. She detached her shorts and pulled them down past her ankles.

"Are you hungry, Clark?" Kara asked, when she reclined herself on the couch. She smiled when she licked her finger.

"Very hungry," Clark said, watching Kara spread her legs.

She looked so smooth down there except for a blonde landing strip right above her womanhood. Clark eyed her and he felt like he was growing breathless.

"Help yourself, but do it slowly, make me savor it," Kara said. "Did you ever do this?"

"No….we didn't do that…..we went straight to…..well…"

"Humans don't have any sense of rhythem sometimes, although they can be fun for a quick romp, wouldn't you agree?" Kara asked him.

"Um…."

"You only did it when Jor-El removed your powers and you didn't want to hurt her, I understand, even though there was nothing to worry about," Kara said, guiding Clark's head. He was nestled between her thighs. She felt them squeeze together. "But, while you couldn't be as intimate, it would still have given you the relief, if you had control. If you can hug someone without breaking them, you can do this but…..move it around, oh that's it. Play with that….nub…..I believe humans call it a clit. Well it's more sensitive on us."

Clark experimented and he got Kara moaning loudly. He could not believe how aroused she got and it was making him aroused either.

"Kiss my thighs, massage them, squeeze them a little bit, harder," Kara encouraged him and she smiled. "And now I think that you're ready, but you might want to work me up a little bit more…"

Clark grabbed her chest and Kara smiled.

"Suck the left one, for about ten seconds, switch to the right, and go back and forth…..oooh that's it!" Kara screamed, she forget herself and the lesson so much. "And now…..kiss down to my stomach, but just come short of my womanhood."

"You really seem to know what you're doing um…that didn't come out right," Clark said.

"Your mother taught me everything that I needed to know," Kara said and Clark raised his eyebrow. "Keep going."

He kept going and then he returned back up towards her.

"Now?" Clark asked her.

"Now…..you didn't slide it all in her at once, did you?" Kara asked her, and Clark looked at her. The look was all that she needed to know. "Inch by inch….it must be at least a foot, wouldn't you say?"

"I don't know, I didn't measure it," Clark said.

"Don't worry, I'm very flexible," Kara said, and she bent her legs back behind her head to demonstrate.

Clark throbbed at her flexibility. Kara smiled and it was an inviting stance for her to take.

"It's calling for you, you don't want to leave it empty, do you?" Kara asked him.

Clark smiled and he pushed inside her. She was so tight, it almost hurt him. He stretched her walls to accommodate him. In response, she clamped down on it like a steel clamp going down a solid rod.

"Muscle control, it's a great thing to have, but I don't need to hold back, well only a little bit," Kara said, seeing Clark's pain flash through her eyes. "Sorry, honey, I've only done this on the simulator…..into me…..pin my arms down and…..oh that's it, so good."

Clark was doing well enough on his own that Kara didn't have to tell him all that much. His technique seemed to be rather quick. She didn't want him to live up to the term faster than a speeding bullet with this.

"And…you're finishing me," Kara commented, when she lifted her hips up.

Clark felt her work him. She did things to his lower region that he didn't think was possible.

"Very good, but I think that we should explore this from a different angle," Kara said and she pulled out of him.

He wanted release. Kara down on her hands and knees caused him to forget that. Her uncovered firm ass swayed next to him.

"Behind, and we can try and fly a little bit, it will lead to better friction," Kara said to him.

Clark went in behind her.

"Good, and faster…but don't climax yet…if you can control yourself there, you can control anything."

Clark tried to control himself, but she made it really hard. She was so soft and wet and hot that he couldn't deny her any more.

"But if you can't, then just let it go, you won't strain yourself," Kara said, and she rocked back and forth against him. She wanted to see how much she could tease him.

Clark had his limits and that wasn't a real shock to her. Kara smiled and the deed was done.

"Refreshing," Kara commented and she guided the both of them down.

"I really felt that one," Clark commented. "I didn't hurt you…"

"You need practice going at full strength before you can adjust yourself, if you ever need to," Kara said, running her hand down her lover's chest and smiling. "And sex is something that Krypton's neglected for the longest time. They figured that they could put together ideal matches and create us in pods."

Clark couldn't help but shudder. "That's kind of creepy."

"Yes, it lead to some cold and emotionless people, but my mother and your parents managed to close the gap with that and lead to more enlightening thinking," Kara said and she shrugged. "It's too little too late for that, but the thought was there. And among being the last of us, we can lead to some more enlightening thinking on Krypton."

Kara pressed her lips against Clark's and she smiled when she pulled away.

"Your next lesson is to please two women at once," Kara commented to her. She brushed her fingers down against his chest. She could see that Clark looked a bit surprised about that. Kara smiled and placed her finger on his lips to stifle that. "I know that you're up for it, but you better let this latest lesson sink in."

Kara snapped her fingers suddenly and shook her head.

"So, are you ready, your head's all cleared, isn't it?" Kara asked him and Clark nodded. The blonde's lips curled into a modest smile and she looked really pleased. "Excellent, I would hate to see that you're not your very best."

Clark agreed, the first two Phantoms were some lucky shots. The next ones would be the different matter.

Thankfully Raya, Clark, and Kara were all ready and they would achieve something great. They might be the last of a dying breed but they would make the most of things.

* * *

Not many people had a second chance to live their life. Raya was one of them who did. She was put into the Phantom Zone as a failsafe. It was almost like Jor-El knew. Jor-El might not have been able to communicate his emotions well sometimes, but he had an interesting perspective on those around him.

"You knew this would happen, but…..something's different," Raya said.

She recognized the method that Jor-El used to create his artificial construct. She understood that he thought that he was doing good from disconnecting his emotions from making the tough choices. He might not be able to live with himself for making half of the decisions that he did.

"What did you know, what did you really understand?" Raya asked to more herself, than Jor-El.

"Even on Krypton, is talking to yourself the first sign of madness?"

Raya turned around and saw Kal-El, Clark, standing in front of her. The young blonde felt herself spell bound. She recognized that he had the best qualities of his father and most importantly the best qualities of his mother.

"Kara modified this so it would be less cumbersome," Raya commented and there was a moment where she sighed long and hard. "I can't say that I blame her…but Jor-El is a vast mountain of knowledge and insight. Half of the discoveries Krypton made during it's last quarter century were because of him."

"I can't deny the man was intelligent but…"

"Say no more," Raya said, pushing her finger down upon Kal-El's lips. "He would have been the first in line to question some of the decisions his artificial construct made…..Kara told you about it, didn't you?"

"I was naturally born instead of…"

"It was forbidden by the Council, you two were born naturally, so was Zod," Raya said. "It was hard to deny that Zod based on a natural birth was one of the strongest soldiers that Krypton ever knew. The death of his wife and child caused him to spiral into madness. And he felt like his contributions got undercut by the Council."

"But what the man did…"

"Not justifying the choices that he made," Raya admitted to Kal. She brushed her hair back and smiled. "But I'm just saying that there is a reason why he became the Phantom that you dealt with."

"I can't help but think that him being sent to the Phantom Zone pushed him a little further," Clark said to him.

"It's hard to really figure out what leads a man to go where he did, the Council may have used Zod's madness as an excuse to ban natural born pregnancies, for they are too unstable, if they didn't have other concerns," Raya said.

Clark smiled. "Like the imminent destruction of the Planet, right?"

"Exactly," Raya said and she peered into his eyes. "You and Kara, you have advantages that I won't have. And I wish that I did. Fortunately, I'm able to assimilate to these powers because I went over with your mother on how to do so. Kara did as well. You came into your powers naturally."

"There's been a lot of roadblocks though."

"Flight problem, I know," Raya said and she raised her finger. "You know the problem is more up here."

She tapped Clark on the top of his head for additional emphasis. He frowned, the woman had a point.

"Do you think that it is?" Clark asked her.

"The mind is where everything starts and ends," Raya said to him. "You look within your mind ,you'll be truly ready to embrace who you can be."

Clark thought that made a lot of sense in some way. He didn't know why it made sense but he was pretty sure that it did in some way. The young man figured that out quickly and promptly a long time ago.

"But, sometimes you can't wait for that moment, and you've got to be the best of yourself when you have a chance," Clark said to her. "You waited in the Phantom Zone for all of that time out of loyalty to my father."

"No, out of loyalty to the House of El," Raya corrected him and she placed her finger on his chest. "Kara must have explained to you that most Kryptonians were bred for a certain purpose. That was my purpose and I respected that. I learned to adapt and I doubt that the consequences will be that much. Lara taught me many things when I worked with her and Jor-El. And I think that I will serve you well if given the chance. Maybe not as well as Kara but…"

"I don't want you to compare yourself to Kara or anyone….."

Speaking of Kara, she showed up in a skid of light. The blonde nearly fell over when she saw Raya and Clark. She was so excited but her excitement faded with a matter of seconds. She frowned, biting down on her lip. Her hand rested on her hip and she corked an eyebrow.

"I really hope that I'm not interrupting anything," Kara suggested. She would have hated to do that, especially if Raya was going to be more in touch for yourself.

"No, I was just informing Kal-El of why some of the things were how they were, and offering him my apologies if he might have gotten a less than favorable opinion of the Kryptonian race," Raya said. "We're not without our flaws."

"Humans aren't either," Clark admitted and he paused. "No one is."

"If you know that, then you are well on your way," Kara agreed with a smile crossing her face. Her hand placed down on a crystal sheet that she held. "I might have found you something that could help us with your radiation shielding problem. It's not tested yet, but it could be stronger and more light weight than the other material."

"It's worth as hot then," Clark told her and Kara smirked.

"Yes, yes, it is," Kara agreed and she put down the material.

There was another thing that she wanted to run by Clark but the radiation shield was the most important thing.

"Your mother would have been proud about how inventive you were," Raya said to Kara.

Kara smiled, that was something that excited her completely. She went through painstaking research. If she could find a shield, she could find a cure sooner or later. Or at least something that would completely negate Kryptonite completely.

"Let's see, if this holds up to the standard simulation," Kara muttered underneath her breath.

* * *

The standard simulation Kara put the Kryptonite radiation through was a mixed bag. She remained hopeful that something would break.

"The shield should work, but I have some questions about its long term stability," Kara commented when she made a note to herself. The crystal Lara gave her currently rested on the ground. It was a big question mark to itself.

"I'm certain that you're on the right track, we just need to utilize the right balance, where Kal doesn't sacrifice power or protection."

That's the thing, wasn't it? Kara thought that if she could get this gift right, it would give the three of them the proper advantage. They needed all the help that they could get against those Phantoms.

"So, you've been fixated on that crystal," Raya said and she placed her hand on Kara's shoulder. "That's Lara's, isn't it?"

"My father tampered with it, I think, and I don't want anything nasty that could hurt any of us, that's why I haven't tried to activate it," Kara said.

"Why haven't you…"

"I have, but he has been very vague on what I need to do to separate my father's influence from it, and retain Lara's," Kara commented with a smile on her face. She really wished that she could do this for Clark as well.

"Wait, that's my mother's crystal?"

Kara figured that honesty is the best policy. "Yes, Clark, that's her crystal…..a copy of her DNA is inside the crystal and it can be activated as an artificial construct or she can be…replicated from it."

"You mean some type of clone?" Clark asked her.

"Well, it's complicated, but it's possible," Kara said and she could see Clark touch the crystal. It reacted to him, but why wouldn't it? It was meant for him. "But there's a problem why we can't use it."

Clark thought that he would best hear out Kara.

"My father stole the crystal from my room and might have tampered with it, I just found that out," Kara commented. "He tried to erase my memory of it, and send me to Earth…..after I injured him when he tried to follow me."

He also may have tampered with her ship out of spite to send her into stasis out of a designated time. There was only one problem and that was that Kara wasn't going to play ball.

"Is there any way to…remove the dirty parts of the crystal then?" Clark asked her.

"It's possible, I'm looking into it, and…"

"Jor-El, is there any way to do so?" Clark asked to the artificial intelligent construct.

"Your mother may have created a failsafe, a backdoor to purge any rogue elements from the crystal, but I have been unable to breach the encoding," Jor-El said.

Kara smiled, she rewired the Fortress very nicely.

"It's a work in progress, but I think that unless you find a way to separate Zor-El's influence from the crystal, it's too dangerous," Jor-El commented to his son.

"Are you stalling for time, Jor-El?" Clark asked him.

"No," Jor-El said. "But I do fear that your mother might interfere in what means to be done with your training."

Clark didn't really know how to respond to that question.

"Fear that you might be proven wrong, Jor-El?" Kara asked and there was one of those seconds where her eyes flashed with absolute rage. There were some instances where she couldn't believe Jor-El. Then there were other times where she could in fact believe the man.

"You know this Fortress is now bound to my will….."

There was a blaring alarm that caused Clark's ears to perk up. He figured that this alarm would be coming too soon.

"I believe that you have more pressing concerns than a family dispute, son," Jor-El commented to him.

The Phantoms had been quiet but Clark suspected that wouldn't last all that long. The young man walked over to see what he could make of this.

The calm before the storm was long gone and it was time for them to come out. Raya and Kara were ready. They were getting better at working together after some initial early problems.

"I think that we'll be able to hopefully deal with this one," Raya said, she placed her hands over her chest and hoped for the best.

"We won't know until we get out how easily we'll deal with it," Kara said and she frowned.

The image that popped up indicated that they were dealing with some real carnage with this one. They braced themselves for anything however.

**To Be Continued. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six: The Humantarian. **

* * *

A baffling sight was something that greeted the police and the coroners were called in to investigate.

"It looks like the flesh was ripped open, the bones were ripped out, and the bone marrow was sucked out," one of the investigators said, the foul smell of decay filling his nostrils. "And that's….horrifying."

Horrifying didn't even begin to describe what that was. There was something dangerous out there that attacked this crew and there were many more rumored sightings along the way.

"What kind of a creature did this?"

"No, it's not a creature, it's a man," one of the witnesses whispered. He was very lucky not to get caught.

"No man on Earth could rip a person open and do that them," one of the investigators said but there was a moment where his voice sounded nervous. There was a distinct lack of conviction in his voice for the most obvious reasons.

"Do you really think so?" the witness said, his spine still felt like jelly from being up and close personal with that thing. It was a man but at the same time it was a thing. There was a blood curdling chill that went through his body. "Well what if it's not on Earth."

One of the investigators felt another chill go down his spine. Whatever this was, it was out of his pay grade. He had heard about the freaks down in Kansas and he was really glad that he wasn't stationed down there.

"Let's try and clean this up," one of them said. His hands grew really shaky.

"Just suck it up and move on, we're not going to accomplish that much by just sitting around her and doing nothing," one of them said and there was a rough tone to his voice.

"I'm not just sitting around here, I'm doing something, I'm really doing something," one of the investigators said.

The smell was far more foul than anything he ever noticed in his life. Nothing should be able to do that to a human being. He didn't know if there was anything that had the stomach to do that to a human being.

"Your serial killer is one thing, a crazy clown in Gotham, yeah that's weird, but we can handle that," one of them said. "But this is an entirely different mess to itself."

One of them picked up the waste. This one seemed to have fought the creature, at least that's what the man would say from his own uninformed opinion. He was mangled beyond all conventional belief and that was a stomach turning experience.

"Just try and deal with this," one of them whispered and his throat grew extremely dry when he looked down at the ground. The growing decay made him weak in his knees and extremely light in his stomach.

"Calm down, it's going to be fine."

There was a flash behind him. That simple movement caused the investigator to nearly fall over.

Was that the killer? Or was that something else entirely? They didn't know and the fact worked them up something fierce. The shivers increased and went down their spine even more.

"It's going to be fine, yeah, that doesn't really look fine," one of them said.

There was a rattle and a tick-tock in the back of his head. Nerves were something dangers that visited even the worst of people.

"Relax, it's going to be alright."

* * *

"I would say to relax, but it's not going to be alright," Raya said and she shuddered. "What this monster is capable of…"

"It goes without saying that there's a reason why all of these people are in the Phantom Zone, Raya," Kal said, gripping her hand tightly. The blonde relaxed underneath his grip and he pulled her into facing him. "There's really nothing that we can do other than take him down."

"We're dealing with Alder, aren't we?" Kara asked Raya and Raya nodded her head. She looked a bit sickened.

"I read the coroner report, he rips them apart, and sucks the bone marrow out of the bones of his enemies,' Clark said.

"That's how his type feeds, he isn't a Phantom, he's much worse, he has a full born body, and it's powered underneath the same sun that we three stand," Raya said with a frown. "And he doesn't have the same vulnerabilities that we still have."

"There's got to be a way around him," Kara said and she could see Clark's eyes.

"Hit him hard, hit him fast, make sure that he's not going to hurt another person as long as he lives," Clark said.

He could see Raya's pained expression locked onto him. "And how do you hope to do that? You know that there isn't a prison that could hold him. He escaped from the Phantom Zone the first chance that he had."

"I'll find a way," Clark said and he honestly meant that. He found a way. His hand tightened around Kara's and she grabbed him hard.

"Are you sure that you can take that step?" Kara asked.

"Do you want me to take that step?"

"No one wants you to take that step, but there's a difference between what we want to do and what we have to do," Kara said. She hoped that delicate line wouldn't be crossed any time soon. Her nerves felt like they were on fire as it was.

She tried to reassure herself that it would be okay. That reassurance faded at that very moment and she didn't know what to do think.

"Be okay, and be strong," Clark told her, his eyes locking onto hers. The blonde frowned deeply and in concentration.

"Yeah, that's what we got to do, enough people have suffered," Kara said and Clark opened his mouth. The blonde clapped her hand over his mouth in response. "Don't blame yourself for this, please."

"I won't," Clark said and Kara's smile grew even wider. There was an instant where she wondered if he thought exactly what she did.

"Let's follow the trail," Kara said.

Heightened senses could be useful or they could lead to your destruction. Raya, Kara, and Clark moved forward.

"Take the shot if you must, but make it count," Raya said. "These Phantoms won't hesitate to rip you apart, you know that right. And he's not a Phantom trapped inside a human shell. He's something much worse. He has strength that you couldn't imagine."

"You'd be surprised about what I could imagine," Clark argued, and Raya sighed.

"Just be careful, please," Raya whispered lightly. She didn't want anyone to get hurt, and Clark was on the top of that list.

Careful was an interesting word. Clark thought that he was always careful but against the dangerous enemies he faced, he could be so careful.

"As long as you two stand behind me, I don't think that I'll have any problem," Clark said and there was a long sigh escaping Raya's mouth.

"You must put the pressure of the world on our shoulders, must you, Kal-El?" Raya asked and Kara placed her hand on Raya's shoulders.

"We can handle it, you know," Kara told her and Raya smiled and shook her head.

"That's really not the point," Raya said to her with a smile.

* * *

Clark kept his eagle eyes peeled. He was pretty sure that this man was going to strike again around this area.

This man, this monster he would strike here again. He was a monster, a horrific horror from the Phantom Zone. The Phantom Zone had that ability to twist the worst minds even more and it shouldn't even be possible.

Clark heard a ringing in his hear suddenly. The Phantom alarm worked like a charm after the modifications.

"That means we should be on top of him," Raya said and Clark smiled.

"Spread out, we'll find him," Clark told her.

"You know, I'm not sure if it means the same thing on Earth that it does on Krypton," Kara said and she drew breath. "But you know, spread out is not normally a good thing."

"Don't engage him one on one if you can help it," Clark told her.

Kara whistled suddenly. That was something that she hated to admit and she really hoped that she never had to engage someone like that.

'_If you can help it, doom us why don't you?' _Kara thought.

Clark realized what he said moments after he said it. It wasn't as if he could take it back though. He sped out at the speed of light.

"There you are, you're the support that I've been waiting for," a woman said and her nose wrinkled. "Yeah, I know, it's not the best in the world. They say it's some kind of guy who did this, but no human has that sharp teeth. And no animal would do this kind of job."

"It's not a human and it's not an animal," Clark said.

"Well, I don't know what it is, but we have orders to put it down if it comes back here, the crewman don't want to live in fear," the woman said. "Just…..are you sure that you're…"

There was a low piercing growl that caused the hairs on Clark's neck to stand up. He didn't like the sound of it.

Something moved off to the side of him.

"Stand here, don't do anything, I'll call for the rest of the team," the woman said, she had orders to bring this thing, whatever it was, dead or alive.

They weren't fussed about that part too much. If she could take the shot personally, she would take it. This thing tore up one of her friends.

Clark zipped away, not waiting for the orders. He could a loud sound.

The large figure was dressed in a ripped open shirt with bulging muscles. He had a broad back that Clark figured might be able to bend iron bars. That was the impression that he got. The shirt formed around his back and he showed off his muscular chest. He looked like he had a bad attitude to be honest.

Clark was going to see if he could correct that attitude for him. He rushed forward and punched him in the face hard.

His knuckles felt completely swollen when he was doubled over. The man above him wrapped his hands around Clark's neck and squeezed his neck hard. His eyes felt like they were going to bulge out of the back of his head when he throttled him.

"You interrupted my meal," Alder whispered and he picked up Clark and slammed him down onto the ground.

There was a blur of light and a blonde haired girl kicked him in the face knocking him over.

"I thought the idea was not to engage the psychopath in battle," Kara said, looking down at him.

"Yeah, well he was about ready to rip into that guy, so I couldn't wait," Clark said and he felt the energy get back to him.

The man stepped towards them and Clark dodged his charging assault. Clark nailed him with a huge series of punches to the kidneys.

He realized that this alien might not have had kidneys. Or his skin was so tough.

"I eat plenty of marrow, so you're going to just have to deal with me," he said, and his teeth dripped with blood.

Raya turned up and ricocheted debris at the base of his neck. The bits and pieces impaled in him and he turned around.

"Oh, you're asking for it now…"

Clark noticed that he winced when Raya hit a sensitive spot on his neck. All of him was double tough except for one part.

"Kara, distract him, I've got an idea," Clark said and Kara raised her eyebrow and nodded. She was going to have to trust that her cousin knew what he was doing.

She hoped that he knew what he was doing anyway. Kara zipped in front of him and flicked him hard on the nose.

The monster turned around and he growled at the blonde. He tried to lung towards her.

"Missed me!" Kara yelled at him.

Raya slid into the back of his legs and knocked him over. He nearly landed on his hands and knees.

Alder was rather pissed off now. He could see something come down on the back of his neck.

He gave a grimace when Clark's fists slammed hard with a blunt force down on the back of his neck.

"Weak spot, let's see if we can make it even weaker," Kara said.

Her eyes fired heat vision right at the weak spot on the back of his neck. That caused the man to scream in abject agony.

Raya picked up a large piece of metal and threw it as hard as she could. It impaled him in the side of the neck.

He dropped down to one knee.

"Not a Phantom, not a weak Phantom," Alder growled to him.

"Good, that means I don't have to pull my punch."

Clark punctuated this statement by slamming his fist down onto the back of the man's neck. His knees and legs snapped together when he dropped down to the ground.

The man dropped down to one of his knees. Clark wondered if he could take the distract step possible.

Raya flung a jagged shard of metal at the back of his neck. It sliced him across the back of his neck. He dropped down to his hands and knees.

"Is he dead?" Kara asked.

The man's heart still beat strong. Clark could hear the heart beats fade further and further off.

His rage rose and that caused his body to break down. He was on his feet.

Clark held in his breath and gave a large gust of wind. It caused him to launch up into the air and slam hard right into a set of jagged rocks.

"I think he's dead now," Raya said.

She carefully inched over to make sure. She was pretty sure the man took a nasty spill. The woman bent down and looked him over.

"Certainly dead," Raya commented.

Clark looked away. She placed her hand on his shoulder.

"I know that wasn't easy, and I know it shouldn't be easy," Raya told him. "He was a mass serial killer so you did the right thing to put him down."

Clark smiled. Kara wrapped her arms around him.

"The fact that you feel some guilt even after that…..we better take his body with us back to the Fortress," Kara commented.

The last thing they wanted was someone to get their hands on that super powered DNA. Kara, Raya, and Clark also spent a minute cleaning up all of the blood and broken skin.

"We're dealing with some dangerous men and women here," Kara said.

"It's no longer like our garden variety villain of the week," Clark commented. It took the effort of the three of them to take him down.

The worst thing was that these villains had a chance to get more dangerous. They had been lucky to have very few causalities with the first couple of Phantoms.

People were starting to stand up and take notice.

* * *

"And for the record, people are starting to stand up and take notice, and it's the wrong kind of notice."

Clark smiled. "Thanks, Chloe, I figured that out."

"Just trying to keep you on your toes," Chloe warned him. "You know it's one thing to have these things isolated in a quaint little town in Kansas."

"Yes, a quaint little town in Kansas that has meteor mutants out the…"

"Yeah, I know, I know," Chloe commented. She hated arguing with Clark during times like this. "So any luck on the Kryptonite shield."

"It's a work in progress," Clark said.

Chloe didn't want to be the one to say this. If Clark had taken advantage of the amazing technology that he had at his disposal, than maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't be having the problems that he had.

"You had to put down a mad dog, you're not worried about that, are you?"

"I'm conflicted, I'm not going to lie," Clark said. "We've destroyed his body and cleaned up all of the remains."

"Yeah, good plan," Chloe confirmed to him. "The last thing we need is the government getting any cute ideas in their head about the super soldiers they can create with this guy."

Clark figured that was the case.

"And dare talk about any Luthors that are lurking around," Chloe added. "And speaking of which….."

"Yes, I've heard," Clark commented.

"You're not obsessing about this, are you?" Chloe asked.

"Lana and Lex…..it was bound to happen," Clark commented casually. He wasn't happy with it. He just was more adept to live with it than he was six months ago. Perhaps maybe because he was letting go of those more innocent teenage years. "I just hope that she knows what she's getting herself into."

"She's a rational adult, but yeah, I hope that you're right," Chloe said. It was obvious that Clark didn't want any distractions. "And it appears that you're turning into a rational adult."

"We all have to some day."

"There are people who might disagree with you," Chloe concluded with a frown. "No other Phantom sightings, at least particular. You didn't leave any witnesses, did you?"

There was a long pause.

"Wow, that leaned towards a dark implication than I was intending," Chloe commented.

"Don't worry, I know what you meant," Clark said. "And I'm going to head back to the Fortress."

"You've been spending a lot of time through, "Chloe said. "It's more of an observation than a complaint but….."

"Until I get these Phantoms completely taken out, there's no rest," Clark said. "There are still a few that are unaccounted for."

"And they're going to lash out if they feel like they're threatened, I know," Chloe said. "Let me know if you need anything…..I've got a story to file about what happened in Washington."

Clark said his goodbye and arrived at the Fortress. He arrived at a flash of light.

No sooner did he show up did he see Raya standing there. She looked stunning dressed in a white dress. When he showed up, Raya smiled brightly at him.

"Nothing?" Raya asked her.

"They think that there's something odd going on now, but nothing out of the ordinary," Clark told her. "Should I…"

"I don't know, that's really up to you," Raya said and she looked at him. "Kara's figured out a process that she can separate your mother from the crystal without triggering what Zor-El did. I think she's holding off disabling Jor-El completely until…"

"Until she can figure out if Lara can serve the same function," Clark commented. He paused and sighed. "Well hopefully not the same function but…"

"I know what you mean," Raya said, placing her finger towards the top of his mouth. There was a moment where the two of them stared at each other. "I think that Lara can run this Fortress well. I do wish that you could take advantage of the knowledge that your father possesses. His personality could be grating on you though."

Raya smiled looking at him. It looked like Clark corked his eyebrow at her.

"Yeah, I know, that's the understatement of the century," Raya said. "And my powers are growing in strength, although nowhere to the level of Kara's or yours. Which proves that Alura's theory might be right."

"About natural born Kryptonians being stronger than those who are created through the scientific method?" Clark asked her.

"Exactly," Raya commented with a frown. "I hope that it doesn't end up weighing both of you down."

"You're a part of this as much as Kara and I are," Clark told Raya firmly. "Not to mention you have knowledge that both Kara and I don't have."

Raya wasn't going to lie, she smiled. It was good to be appreciated. She wondered if she could take this next distract step.

"You know, I thought that I might not be good enough for you, I mean, to fulfill my purpose," Raya said. "Can I tell you something?"

Clark waved towards her. "Go ahead."

"I was never sure that I would escape from the Phantom Zone," Raya said. She stepped towards him, her arms thrown around Clark's neck when she did it. "But, while I'm not going to say that I'm too happy with those things escaping, I'm guessing that it will work out for the best."

Raya leaned in towards Clark.

"The three of us might be all that's left of a race that has been through a lot," Raya whispered. "There are rumors that others could be out there, but why go chasing ghosts. Let's deal with something tangible here."

Raya pressed her lips onto Clark's and kissed him after a second. Kara gave her the green line to do this, which was more than fine. Raya's tongue pushed deep into his mouth.

The intense kiss continued, with Clark running his hands down the back of her neck. She deepened the kiss.

There was a loud shriek from the lab that Kara was working in. Clark and Raya spun around to see what the ruckus was.

"I think I did it!"

**To Be Continued. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven: Bonding.**

* * *

One could not argue that Kara's excitement was infectious. Clark and Raya rushed into the next room at her squeal of delight.

The blonde clapped her hands together. It was obvious that she tried to exercise every fiber in her being not to jump up and down. Her cheeks flushed when she tried to fight it. There was something dancing in her eyes that couldn't be denied.

It was infectious, that was the perfect word to describe what she was doing. Clark walked towards her. She spun around and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a deep hug.

"I got it working!" Kara exclaimed, and she kissed him hard.

"Well, if you're the one that got it working, then I should be the one that's kissing you," Clark said, raising his eyebrow when he stared in Kara's eye.

"Details, details," she said shaking her head. "I managed to copy Lara's essence into a second crystal without triggering anything my father did. He should be exiled to a deep dark place. And you'll have a more balance influence, at least I hope that you will."

"You hope that it will?" Raya asked, raising her eyebrow when she looked at Kara.

"Well there's always a margin for error, what can I say," Kara commented, shrugging her shoulders. "I suppose that we're just going to have to wait and see if Lara will download properly."

There was another one other thing that Kara had to deal with.

"I think that Lara should be able to help us, she'll be more helpful than Mr. Personality is," Kara said. Once again she didn't really care of Jor-El heard a word she said. The blonde female was if nothing else extremely opinionated.

Clark knew that given the gushing stories that Kara told about Lara, he would be happy to officially meet his birth mother.

"I know that you've found your life here on Earth," Kara said. "And it's amazing that you have, you have a mother already and I'm sure that she's a big reason why you are who you are."

Clark smiled and nodded.

"But you need to know where you have been, before you know where you need to go," Kara said.

Raya didn't say anything. Alura said that to Kara a few times. She noticed the disc that folded in Kara's hand. She wondered about some things. There were many things that she wondered about regarding Kara.

"I'm sure that you're right," Clark said, and he could see Kara slip back onto his lap. His arms wrapped around her. "I know that you are."

Kara could see Raya give Clark a look. She frowned when she noticed the type of look that Raya gave him.

"I didn't interrupt anything, did I?" Kara asked. "Because I'm really sorry that I did."

Raya shook her head. Kara's eyes burned onto her. It was hard to escape the glance of those burning blue eyes.

"Well…..I don't think…"

Clark nudged Kara off of his lap. She landed firmly onto her feet. She gave Raya an encouraging gaze. Raya made her way towards Clark and threw her arms around him with a smile on her face.

"Seems to me like I did interrupt something," Kara commented. "I did talk about how we're the last left. Therefore there are times where we can't find comfort in anyone else but each other. And you love Clark, don't you?"

Raya nodded in response and she could feel Clark's arm wrap around her. She closed her eyes.

"And he loves you, I can tell," Kara said. "And you both love me."

"It's even rare on Krypton, although not unheard of," Raya muttered underneath her breath. She could feel Clark's hands explore her body. That caused her body to heat up slightly more.

"I think given the circumstances any rules are going to be out the window," Kara said, walking behind Raya. Her hands roamed her body from behind.

Raya realized that she was trapped between the two of them. She didn't mind that. She had a dream that started like this.

If she was dreaming this time, she would very displeased. Clark's hands worked her over.

"Remember what I said about your next lesson?" Kara asked her. "That we would get to on another day when you had time to sink in."

"Yes, I remember what you said," Clark admitted. His hand placed on her rear and he squeezed her delicious rear.

He placed both beautiful blondes on either side of him and started to kiss him. He slowly removed their clothes.

"Equal attention, but given us enough where we won't feel like we're left out," Kara said, feeling Clark's strong hand resting on her thighs. "Be creative about how you love us, Kal-El."

His fingers brushed between their legs and the two girls responded the favor by stripping him.

"But we should make sure that he has his share of fun as well," Raya said, her hand clenching him.

"This is your first time, you should get a taste," Kara whispered in Raya's ear. She pressed her bare breasts against Raya's back to encourage her to go down. "Do your duty to the House of El, Raya. You know that you long for it."

Raya sunk down to her knees. Clark closed her eyes and he felt her close in on her.

"Take him deep as you are able to," Kara whispered in Raya's ear.

Raya could feel something go between her legs. Clark grabbed her head and made sure she focused where she needed to be focused.

"Keep it up."

Raya's hot mouth did it's job on him. She dug her nails into his thighs and brought her mouth onto him again and again.

Kara rose to her feet and her mouth was covered in Raya's essence. Clark decided to get a sneak peak of that by kissing Kara and playing with her.

Raya could feel Kara's hand on the back of her head, guiding her in what she needed to do. It guided her in her duty.

Clark grunted, his eyes flushing over. He felt extremely good.

The flowing rush impacted into Raya's mouth. The blonde could feel it. Her hot lips smacked around him.

Raya tilted her head back and could feel the pleasure going into her. It poured deep into her mouth.

Kara pulled her up by the hair and winked at Clark. She gave him an erotic show, pushing her tongue deep into Raya's mouth.

Clark hardened and he could see Raya. He could see her part, with Kara holding her in place. Kara continued to kiss Raya, their breasts pressing together.

His iron bar needed relief and he placed his hands on her thighs. He parted them and slammed into her.

Clark placed his hand around and fingered Kara while he slammed himself into Raya.

"Good job, both of us at once, oh Rao, that feels so good," Kara moaned when she watched Clark work into Raya from behind.

Raya whimpered when she felt Clark go into her. Her god was ravishing her body. The fact that Kara pleasured her as well, that was a fantasy that came true for her.

"She feels so good, both of you do," Clark grunted when he placed his hands on Raya. He worked into her from behind harder.

Raya had her mind blown with an amazing climax and Clark decided to switch positions. He entered inside of Kara and put his fingers into Raya. He pushed them into her at hyper speed.

Raya could feel the explosion that dripped down her thighs. Kara's glazed over eyes as Clark bent her over the console caused Raya to heat up.

She felt that Clark was extremely big. This was something that was hammered home when Clark hammered home into Kara.

"That's good, that's really good."

Raya could feel her body shake completely over. Her nipples grew hard and Kara captured one of them in her mouth form the side.

Both Clark and Kara pinned her down against the console. They took her breasts and ravished them.

Kara rubbed her over heated mound onto Raya's and that caused friction.

"It's tight, but you can fix that."

Raya realized that she might not be able to sit for a week when Clark went into her from behind.

"That feels good, doesn't it honey?" Kara whispered to her. "You like it in that hole, don't you? Guess you're really a naughty girl, aren't you?"

Kara had a specialized strap on that pushed its way deep between Raya's legs. It seemed to grow to accommodate and stretch from the front while Clark grabbed her from behind and slammed himself into her.

The device caused Raya to be stretched out.

"She really is a moaner, isn't she?" Clark asked.

"Yes, she is, but once we finish her off, it will be my turn," Kara said. "We're going to take her until she passes out, you know."

Raya didn't deny that was what she wanted. Both of her fellow survivors took her from either side.

Time seemed to pass by the more that both of them took her. There were many loud screams when she felt them go into either side of her.

"Take me, oh take me!" she screamed.

She was so close to passing out and Kara smiled. She had been inducted into the group and with smile. Raya deserved everything that she got.

"Who do you belong to, then?" Kara asked, whispering to her.

"Both of you, you can take me often as you want, as…..as many times as you want," Raya murmured.

A shuddering moan showed her body was reacting fairly well to what was being done to her. Clark and Kara hammered her from either side.

"I think that she's about to get a prize," Kara moaned and she could feel Clark's hands reach around to play with her as well. He was such an able learner. "Don't hold back, Kal….don't hold back Clark! Give it to her!"

Kara's passionate moans caused a burning desire to spread from Clark. He could feel that he was seconds away from unloading into Raya. The blonde's intense pleasure increased when he took her on either side.

She had an amazing climax, in time to both of her lovers unleashing their passions as well. It was an amazing shared experience that none of them will ever forget.

Kara smiled, resting her face on Raya's breasts. She slowly looked up at Clark, who drained himself inside her tight anus. A sultry grin spread over her face and there was a sensual twinkle dancing through her eyes.

"And now, to go to the next level."

* * *

Clark was in the midst of a session of a different kind with Kara. The beautiful blue eyed blonde looked at him with a smile on her face.

"Sometimes you won't have your powers," Kara said to him. "That could be a problem."

"Yes, it could be a problem, about as much as the Kryptonite," Clark admitted.

Kara rushed him and went behind him. She bent her arm behind his back, forcing him down onto the ground. He landed face first onto the ground.

"It's all about the leverage that you can have," Kara said with a smile. She wore a blue watch that blocked out her powers but yet Clark still had his.

"I could crush you…"

Kara swept his legs underneath from him. She rolled him over.

"That's good, you could, but I trust that you won't," Kara commented to him. "You underestimated me because you think that I'm weaker than you. Which is a good thing for you, if you ever run into that situation."

"I'll take your word for it," Clark commented.

Kara monitored him. She took the watch off of herself and she put it on Clark.

"Okay, remember that I'm not as adept of a fighter as some out there are," Kara commented. She walked into the chamber to the side to recharge her powers. "You either fight me though with my powers or you get…..what was the word that you used?"

"Crushed," Clark commented.

Raya showed up. She still walked a little funny after what they went through earlier. The blonde bent over with a lengthy sight escaping her mouth.

"Yeah, crushed, like that," Kara commented, crushing a stone in her hand. The powdered pulp dropped to the ground. "But don't worry, I won't hurt you too much. I don't think that your enemies will extend the same curtesy."

To demonstrate that point, Kara's fist was a blur. Clark still had some residual powers but it could have taken his head off.

"See, if I wasn't your mate, I wouldn't have pulled that punch," Kara commented, and she swung a kick in response. "And that could have caved your ribs in and…"

Clark tried to take her down. He managed to copy her movements from earlier.

Kara was surprised that he had done this. Pleasantly surprised in fact because that showed that he learned a very important aspect of his powers. That important aspect was fighting without those powers.

She flipped over and landed on her feet.

"Again, not bad," Kara said, closing her fist. "It will need work, but it's really not bad at all."

She motioned for him to go at her again. Clark went at her again. Kara decided to trip him up. He fell onto his feet and she exerted pressure on his chest.

"Remember what I told you about using your opponent's leverage against you," Kara commented, pressing her foot into his chest. "No matter how strong she is, no matter how strong they are…"

Clark swept Kara's leg out from underneath her and tried to pin her down onto the round. Kara's legs wrapped around him and flipped him over, pinning him down on the ground.

"I'm glad I'm not the one in your position, Kal," Raya muttered, shaking her head.

"You're going to be in many tough positions," Kara told Raya, raising her eyebrow. "And I think that all of us could brush up on this. It isn't the Kandorian military academy training by any stretch."

Clark got up to his feet again and he was slowly figuring out how Kara moved. He was able to study how she moved, how her attacks flowed together. The blonde might have moved at super speed but that was fine.

Kara could see what he was doing. She decided that she would have to step up her game. Vary up her attacks where he wouldn't have been able to see them coming a mile away. The blonde whipped her fist at a super powered speed in an attempt to gauge his actions.

He caught her hand and blocked it.

"Excellent," Kara said and she nearly punched him. "But don't be distracted by a compliment."

"Because that could cost me, right?" Clark asked her.

"Yes, it could cost you," Kara said and she grabbed him around the head. She put a little bit of pressure on his head. It wasn't enough to hurt him too badly. It was sufficient enough to cause him to become light headed and dazed.

The blonde smashed him face first down onto the ground. Clark felt himself grow rapidly dazed.

"You should have kept your eye on…"

Clark grabbed two hands full of Kara's beautiful blonde hair and whipped her down to the ground. It might have been a dirty move but it worked out well. She flipped hard and landed on her back.

Kara smiled in spite of herself. That was working. He did a dirty trick sure but sometimes you couldn't play nice.

"Again!"

Clark felt that he was going around like a hamster on a wheel fighting her. Kara kicked up her game again.

She forced to evolve his attacks. It was the training program that Lara devised for him. She knew that if he relied on his powers, he would be very weak indeed.

Kara thought that it allowed her to learn greater control as well. The blonde tried not to be too pleased with how well her mate came along.

It was very well, it was very well indeed. She could feel him improve and it caused him to gain confidence.

If they were able to get to Clark like this from the beginning, she thought that he would be better off.

* * *

"Shield simulation is good to go, I think that this will work well," Raya commented to both of them. She felt the grand feeling of achievement when the shield had been created and it will work. How half of their planet's radioactive core ended up following Kal-El's ship out remained a mystery.

There were many mysterious about the end of Krypton.

"It's tweaked enough where it can block out the radiation, but only the right kind of radiation," Kara commented. She looked forward to this.

"So the only thing left to do is test it," Clark commented.

"Right, and you will get out if you feel the burn, won't you?" Raya asked. "Don't try and fight it. While there is a chance that your resistance can built up over constant short term exposure, that doesn't mean that you have to force it."

Clark raised his eyebrow. That was the first about becoming immune to it.

"What's exactly the time table on this one?" Clark asked her. He had been exposed to Kryptonite more times than anyone else. He figured that he should be on the fast track to this.

"It doesn't matter," Kara said evasively. "It's a theory and it hasn't been proven anyway. We should worry about how this shield works."

Kara lead Clark towards the chamber where he could have the shield apply to him. If it worked, then there was one for Raya and Kara as well.

"Okay, are you ready to do this?" Kara asked her.

"Introduce the Kryptonite radiation," Clark ordered.

Raya hoped that this would work. She gave him one final warning. "Remember, get out of here if you feel even the first sign of pain because of the radiation."

Clark gave a salute. Raya sighed. There was a second where she felt that he wasn't taking her too seriously.

"There are instances like this where you do take after your father in the worst way," Raya said. Her attempt to get Clark to be serious worked completely. His blue eyes snapped towards her. "So are you ready now to conduct this experiment?"

"I'm ready," Clark informed her.

There was an energy wave that blasted into the chamber. Clark braced himself for the Kryptonite. There was a panic button on the side if he needed to be let out or saved. Seconds turned into minutes when the chamber filled.

Clark stood there. All the radiation chamber did was give him a nice glowing green glow.

"Is that all?" Clark asked her.

Raya frowned and she cranked it up a little bit more. She didn't want to go too far. She wanted to test the limits.

"You don't feel anything, do you?" Raya asked. Her voice rose in excitement.

"I think it's working," Kara said, rocking back on her heels and she nearly brimmed with excitement.

"Yes, it's working," Raya agreed, corking her eyebrow. "One more test. Remember the button is on your left. If you feel even a slight sting, press it."

"So far, so good, Raya," Clark said, giving her the thumbs up. "Oh, in case that doesn't mean the same thing on Krypton…"

"I know you're feeling good," Raya said. Her face almost cracked into a grin. She held herself back from getting too excited. "But we'll see, one final test."

"Do it, so we can know whether or not this works if he gets bombarded with a Kryptonite meteor," Kara said. She paused and added in a hasty afterthought. "Of course, if he actually got bombarded with a Kryptonite meteor for real, we might not be sitting here having this conversation."

Raya paused for a second. She knew what she had to do. The blonde pulled the switch and the radiation bombarded Kal-El on the other side.

"So, how are you feeling?" Raya asked him.

"I feel fine."

She felt excitement, for many reasons. It worked. That called for some celebration.

Clark felt good about this for obvious reason. He was sick of getting dropped to his knees because of a blast of Kryptonite. He hated every second of that.

"We did it!" Kara yelled, throwing her arms around Clark's neck in excitement.

She gave him a smoldering kiss in response. Clark felt himself get overwhelmed by her attack. He wasn't going to fight it though, at least no more than the token amount of resistance. After what happened, he did have a cause of celebration.

* * *

Lara wondered where she was. Memories slowly came back to her when she shook herself back awake.

The last conversation that she had was the conversation that she had with Kara. She was about ready to have Kal-El. She was confident that her son would grow up to be strong. Unlike the Council, she paid attention to the warnings that their planet was sick. Jor-El might have had a few faults. Wrong about advanced science like this was not one of them. He rarely gave idle warnings like this.

She really wished that she could do more to help her son. The pregnancy she had was extremely high risk and would leave her very weak.

She knew that Kara would be right behind him. When the time was right, she knew that Kara would be there for her son. There was a flash of light and Lara looked forward.

"Hello, Aunt Lara, I trust that you're well."

Lara could sense Kara standing in the burning white light. She could tell that she was in a place of Kryptonian origin. That was the only thing that she could tell. She realized that she was some place other than Krypton, even though there was a creation much like the planet itself.

"I trust that you are here, and I trust that you are completely whole."

Lara shook her head. Confusion was the first thing that filled her mind. It was hard to process these things that happened around her.

"Just relax, and let me help you, it's been a long time since you've been asleep."

"Kara?" Lara asked.

"Yes, Lara, I'm here," Kara said. "It's been a long time. I had to work around something, but all of your systems are operational. It's a bit later than you would have liked because of circumstances that I'll explain in a little bit."

Lara knew that there was some kind of explanation that was coming up that would cause her head to explode. She patiently or perhaps impatiently waited for Kara to fill her in on what was what.

"Would you like to meet your son?"

That was something that caught Lara off guard. She had no answer other than what she gave.

"Yes."

She would like very much to meet her son. Kara waved him over and he appeared in the light for the first time.

"Hello, Mother."

* * *

**To Be Continued. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight: Matters of the Mind.**

* * *

Lara's smile grew brighter when she saw her son walk towards her. It was like a dream come true for her. She nearly grew misty eyed when he approached her or she would have had she had a corporeal form. There was no question about it, she felt extremely good about seeing him or at least meeting him.

"Mother, I never thought…"

"I had hoped that Kara would bring it here, but there were always chances that it would never work out," Lara said with a sigh. "And you were found much older than I would have thought. Kara was supposed to meet you when you turned fourteen and you were supposed to look for the stones. That was supposed to happen, you know."

"I'm aware, she mentioned something along those lines," Clark commented. "Are you feeling fine?"

"I don't…..I feel fine, now that I'm here, even though I don't have much mobility to have," Lara whispered when she spoke. "Can you believe that, I'm obsessing over the fact that I don't have any mobility. When all I should be is happy that I have you here."

Clark placed his hand gently on the crystal. It was not the gesture that he wanted to do.

"Careful, it may be hot," Lara said, in amusement. "So many experiences that I missed out on you…..but it was for the best that you were not on Krypton. Even if Jor-El managed to avert that disaster, there would be others. Our race refused to grow past their own thoughts of what was proper. We were once a highly evolved race."

"And you further slipped to the point where you've been devolved," Raya said.

Lara sounded rather happy. "Raya, it's excellent to hear your voice, it's been too long, you know."

"Yes, I know," Raya said, smiling deeply. "It's good to hear your voice as well Lara, after everything. I'm glad that you're here."

"I had to work around your crystal, I'm sorry," Kara whispered.

"Why are you apologizing?" Lara asked suddenly. She could tell the stress and tension grew in Kara's voice.

The blonde gave herself a few seconds to get her bearings back together before she spoke.

"It was my father," Kara said, breathing. She felt strength of Kal's grip around her. "I think that he…..well he had his own plans of what he wanted to do on Earth."

"You stopped him, though?" Lara asked.

Kara nodded but clammed up when she realized that Lara couldn't really see her nodding. Raya and Clark both looked amused and Kara turned to them, as if to tell them not to say one word.

"Yeah, I stopped him, I don't know how much it was worth," Kara said and she let out a long sigh from her mouth. "It took me several days to stop him and to find out what he did. You don't have a corporeal form yet."

"No, but you can build one, if you want to, it will just take a little work," Lara said. "We may have to work around it."

Lara wanted to hear more about what was going on with her son, any friends he might have had. Any great triumphs he might have had on his own adopted planet. This might be the mother in her talking but Lara expected some great things. And if possible, she wanted to some day meet those who brought her son in, to thank them. Earth might have been behind Krypton but to take someone in was compassion and Lara appreciated that.

There was a blaring alarm that cut off all thoughts and inquiries. Lara wondered what was going on.

"Might I ask what that is?" Lara asked frowning. The alarm kept blaring.

Clark hated that these things had bad timing. He walked over to the console. This left Kara and Raya with the extremely lovely task of explaining to Lara what happened.

"There was a problem in the Phantom Zone," Raya said delicately. No sooner did she speak, she already figured out how precisely and completely stupid this sounded in her head.

Lara wasn't stupid. She was a doctor and one of the best on Krypton. No one excelled to that position by being devoid of any higher mental activity.

"Define a problem," Lara said. She hoped that it wasn't anything too serious.

"Seven confirmed Phantom Zoners escaped," Raya said, deciding not to sugar coat it. "Zod sent Kal-El to the Phantom Zone and I assisted him on his escape. Unfortunately the exit portal that Jor-El put in the Zone was used as a backdoor to allow Phantoms out of the Zone. And we've been taking care of them."

"You realize that the only way to stop some of these Phantoms is death, because they're not going back to the Phantom Zone if they can help it," Lara whispered.

Lara could see how this could be a problem. She never wanted her son to be a soldier in the war. She wanted him to a brilliant scientist that could use his gifts to save the world.

"This is really happening, isn't it?" Lara asked.

"One of the Phantoms is in Smallville…it's close to the Kent Farm," Clark said when he showed back up.

"It can't….can it…" Kara whispered, and she squeezed his hand.

"We should assume that it can find out things that it has no right to know," Lara said. She really wished that she could help her son. "Is it corporeal, mist, or inhabiting a body?"

"We're not sure," Clark said. "We're never sure until we….."

"You need to kill it," Lara said and suddenly she accessed something on the Fortress. "I hoped Jor-El didn't delete these notes. Thankfully he didn't. The real me would have made his afterlife entirely unpleasant he did."

Kal could never say that he knew a woman to be this scary. Okay, he knew a few women to be this scary, but that wasn't the point.

"Are those what I think they are?" Raya asked. "Lara Lor-Van, I swear you're the only woman in the world who could turn knowledge like that into a weapon."

"Just because I didn't follow the rest of my family into the military, doesn't mean that I didn't learn a few nasty tricks based on my own field of study," Lara said. "These points, they are very lethal. One shot and you can pretty much shot down a person's nervous system if they're not shielded. And these are the areas where you can cause the most amount of pain without killing your enemy."

"You'd be pretty surprised with what you can live through," Raya said, raising her eyebrow. "Seriously, are you sure that they couldn't be killed?"

"I'm looking for something to shut down the body temporary to eject the Phantom, that won't kill the innocent host," Clark said. "Please tell me you've figured out something like that."

Lara sounded extremely amused.

"Well….yes….because there are instances where you really don't want to kill people if you can help it," Lara said. She flashed the holographic projection of the diagrams. "This will cause the body to become inhabitable. The pain the vessel suffers is unbearable for the host. And while the vessel will live through it, they'll be racked with pain for days."

"Seems like a fair trade not to be a time share with a Phantom," Kara said. "And you know, it's the best of…..well it's the best of several evils, isn't it?"

"Right in one," Kal muttered underneath his breath. He committed these attacks to his memory.

"The three of you should be careful because the physical Phantoms are dangerous but the Phantoms that prey on your mental facilities and your emotions are something else entirely," Lara said. "And I didn't want my first conversation for you to be a lecture but…"

"Be safe, I understand."

Kal, Kara, and Raya hoped that they could still find the Phantom before it was too late. This was getting to be an increasingly dangerous game and this trio knew what was on the line.

* * *

The Phantom was way too close to home. Clark could see that no one was around the area of the Kent Farm. The storm clouds rolled in from up above him.

"So, are there any Phantoms that can manipulate the weather?" Clark asked to Raya.

Raya slowly racked her brain to think about that and she shook her head. "There are none to the best of my recollections."

"Oh, then that's going to make things so much easier than," Clark said.

He didn't know if weather manipulators would be the least of their worries. Every shadow who shifted could be a Phantom.

"I thought they couldn't exist if they didn't hold a corporeal form," Clark commented to them.

"It depends on the creature, there are some who holds a natural state that isn't solid."

There was a whimpering from the shadows. Clark stood rigidly. Kara looked at her cousin and hoped that he wouldn't fall for this one.

"I don't think that any of us should go in there alone," Kara said, her face falling into a frown. "What do you think, Kal?"

"I agree, all of you be careful," Kal said, leaning in towards the shadows. Something stirred in the darkness and he didn't like what was stirring in there either.

"Come before me, look within yourself!"

Clark was glad that he was prepared for this because something like this would normally make him surprised.

He could see Kara and Raya vanish before his eyes. He fell down to the barn floor.

Kara looked around and saw Clark dropped by a mysterious force. He then disappeared. She saw Raya disappear and Kara tried not to freak.

"You failed him, Kara, why did you fail me?"

"I didn't fail anyone!" Kara yelled suddenly. Self-doubt came along her again.

"I didn't raise you to be a failure, I'm ashamed that you're my daughter," the demonic figure stated from the shadow. A twisted mirror image of Kara appeared in the darkness, in glasses, with glowing eyes.

"Mother," Kara whispered, but she shook her head. She could feel a thumping in her head.

"Yes, you saw the city disappear outside of it, millions were killed, but you stood by and did nothing," Alura said to her. "You stood there, like a scared little girl, crying. You're weak, I didn't raise you to be weak."

Kara was frozen completely in time and she shook her head.

"Not real, not real, so not real," Kara whispered but Alura grabbed Kara and turned her around.

"You will look at your mother when she is talking to you, Kara!" Alura yelled. "You would have let countless die, just like your father. You are just like him. You will destroy a world just like he did."

"No, you're wrong, you're not real!" Kara yelled.

Raya didn't like this at all. She was back inside the Phantom Zone suddenly. How could the Phantom send her back here? There was a thumping inside the back of her head.

"There she is, let's rip her to pieces!"

Raya's heart sped up and she had to find the exit portal around here.

"Raya, he did something, he sent us back, all three of us," Kara said nervously.

"We got to find the portal and open it, we have to do it Raya," Clark said and Raya's eyes critically stared at her two fellow survivors before her.

There was something that she didn't like about this entire arrangement. Raya couldn't quite her put her finger on it. The last time the portal opened, all of the Phantoms poured out.

"Raya, we've got to do it, you know that we have to do it," Kara said.

Raya saw a flash. It looked like they were back in the barn for a second. She was back in the Phantom Zone.

"The Phantom is trying to mess with our minds, making us think that we're safely back on Earth," Kara said to her. "But we're not, we're back in the Phantom Zone."

"You were never in the Phantom Zone before," Raya said, suspiciously looking at Kara.

"Right, I knew that," she said in annoyance. "But we got to get out of here before it's too late."

"I know, just…..just make sure that no one's behind you….and open the portal," Raya said to them.

"No, Raya, it has to be you," Kara said. "You're going to have to be the one that is going to have to open the Portal."

She dropped to her knees and screamed suddenly.

"What's the matter?" Clark asked to her in a compassionate voice.

Raya sprung up and stabbed Clark into his face. It contorted into a twisted mass of purple dust.

"You know what's the matter, who are you, what have you done with them!" Raya yelled. She was not someone who was the best fighter in the world.

"Don't worry, your energy tastes delicious, and you will be the perfect vessel when we swarm this world," one of them whispered.

Raya knew now not to go for the portal. She wasn't in the Phantom Zone. Something started to flicker in and out of her.

"Raya, I need your help!" Kara yelled from the distance.

Raya hesitated for a moment. She didn't really know whether or not it was Kara who yelled for her. That was completely nuts. The blonde hoped that it was her.

"You don't know what's real and what's fake," the man whispered in her ear.

Raya knew that these wraiths would twist her mind. They would fill her mind with lies and completely false hope.

"You don't know where the madness ends and when your salvation begins!" the voice whispered, a twisted scream coming out on the other end.

Raya decided to sit down on the ground. She did the exercises that she was taught to help clear her mind. It allowed her salvation in the Phantom Zone. It felt like she was inside that wretched place for thousands of years and to be back in it.

Even if it was within the theater of the mind, it caused her shivers to explode down the back of her neck.

"Where are you, where are you?"

Raya wondered if that was Kal calling out for her. She held the crystal in her hand. She didn't even known if that was real or not. Nothing was certain. She thought that her mind was being driven completely to mush.

That was the Phantoms wanted. She absolutely refused to give in. Raya wasn't going to give them this success.

Phantoms or Phantom, she mentally corrected herself. She was at the point where she honestly didn't know. And that was a point that scared her completely.

'_Focus, Raya, don't lose your cool, for their sake, for your sake, for anyone's sake,' _Raya thought.

She could see the distortion between fantasy and reality come back to bite her. Her head felt like it was being drummed over and over again. She wanted to roll the eyes into the back of her head and scream for the heavens. The woman shook her head and got increasingly calm.

Calmer than she should have been perhaps but Raya threw herself through the gateway.

It cracked open. The road back to her sanity wasn't going to be an easy one.

* * *

Clark felt himself in the middle of a field. There were whispers of those around him.

"He's fighting it, but how long can he do it before he slips into the abyss? His mind is not his anymore. It's ours, just like it will always be ours."

The haunted faces of past meteor mutants Clark fought surrounded him. There were mutterings that they ruined his life.

"If you had any sense, you'd end it right now, before you ruin even more lives."

Clark saw familiar faces flash before him. He shook his head completely and one of them grabbed him around the shoulder.

"This might seem real, but none of this is real," a gentle voice commented behind him. "Your father was afraid that something like this could happen if they ever escaped."

"It's not real, not real at all,'" Clark muttered, and he turned around to see the mysterious man but he was gone.

Clark could feel a ringing in his ear and he saw an image of Krypton. He saw Kara being advanced upon with a crazed woman.

"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" Clark yelled but the illusion ignored him. It almost seemed like Clark wasn't supposed to be here.

It hit him suddenly. The illusion didn't hear Clark because to this particular illusion, Clark didn't exist. He was a foreign element.

Somehow, through some fluke of luck, he tripped a switch and his subconscious intermingled with Kara's. He didn't know what it was.

"Kara, listen to me, that's not your mother," Clark told her.

Kara's eyes snapped open and the blonde looked dazed and confused. She started to bring in a deep breath out of her body and bring a deep breath out of her body.

"Yes, yes, I know…"

"DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" she said and she tried to stab Kara from behind.

Kara blocked it with her hands or to be more accurate her mind. She overwhelmed this spectral shadow in her mind.

"No, I didn't fail anyone and what happened in Kandor was a tragic accident," Kara said, twisting the knife around in her hands. "But, to say that it was my fault, is insane. But what I do to you next will be my fault, Phantom."

Kara closed her eyes and overpowered it mentally. Clark holding her hand allowed her to do such a thing.

The two of them collapsed on the ground, and the world around them slowly decayed.

"Just a twisted shadow of a far greater time," Kara whispered. She could feel her temples throb. "We got to find our way back to the real world."

"And we can't do that without Raya," Clark told her.

Kara brushed her fingers through her hair. She nearly tugged on it.

"Guess, you're just going to have to do what you did again to reach out to me," Kara said, putting her hands to her side. She placed her arm around Clark's. It was her theory that they could stick together.

"And how do you know that I'm not the Phantom messing with your head even more?" Clark asked.

"Would you have asked that if you were?" Kara fired back in a snappy voice and Clark raised his eyebrow. "That's exactly what I thought. Trust this, Kal, trust this, don't worry, everything will be care."

"I do worry," Kal told her, leading Kara down the beaten pathway.

Raya's deadened screams could be heard. There was some kind of barrier in front of them and they couldn't reach out and grab her.

"And to answer your question, I looked in the eyes and saw the truth," Kara commented. "I can't explain it any better or any clearer than that. You've got to believe me, Kal."

"I do Kara, I really do," Clark told her, squeezing her hand in his. She smiled and rested her head down on his shoulder. "Ready?"

"Yeah, let's do this one," Kara said, determination flashing through her eyes. She wasn't going to back down in the slightest at all.

The two of them stepped through the portal side by side each other. They could see Raya standing before them. There was a wild look in her eyes. This caused Kara to frown deeply and harshly.

"They really got to her," Kara said, completely awestruck by what she saw. "We've got to get it before it…"

"We can't return to the real world without defeating it, the three us, can we?" Clark asked. "Or is there more than one?"

Kara didn't know. She rushed over to attack Raya.

"Stay away from me!" Raya yelled and she tried to attack Kara. Kara blocked her attacks.

"I don't wish to hurt you, but Rao help me if you keep fighting me, this isn't going to end well for anyone here," Kara said, her breathing quickening in several steps. "Raya, snap out of it, Raya, please, it's me, Raya!"

"I'm…..I can't do it!" Raya yelled frantically at the top of her lungs. The blonde could feel a throbbing sensation spreading through the back of her head. It seemed the more she tried to fight it.

"Yes, you can Raya, just…..we're here, and the three of us we can stand together."

"Yes, stand together," Raya said and she looked into his eyes.

She saw the truth and the world that the Phantom created crumbled around them.

The three of them fell down onto the barn with a thud. They felt completely drained. Clark groaned, he didn't think that Kryptonite would be this bad.

Clark saw the Phantom hovering above their heads. It was in pain but it would find a new host that it could feed off of. Clark spotted some shadowed figure from the doorway.

'_Now is the moment, Kal-El, do it,' _a voice whispered in the back of his head.

Clark understood now was the moment. He scooped up the crystal in his hand and did an expert move. He slashed the crystal deep into the creature and it glowed.

Kara and Raya caught him when he fell backwards into their grips.

"Yes, thank you," Clark commented when both of them caught him. He was able to stand on his own but somehow he couldn't. Maybe somehow he didn't want to.

The Phantom returned weakened to its own domain.

Chloe arrived at the barn just seconds after the Phantom left.

"My god, you look horrible," Chloe whispered, catching eyes on Clark's gaunt and destroyed face.

"Yeah, Chloe, thanks," Clark said and he shook his head. "It's really nice to see you too."

"Another one's done," Kara said, shaking her head. She nearly walked forward but collapsed.

"Great, I've got three completely battered Kryptonians, and I don't…..I don't know what to do," Chloe said, shaking her head.

"Just give us a minute, the sun will rise, and we'll be better," Kara commented, shaking her head.

"Right, because there's no way I can get you back to the Arctic," Chloe said. "So, I guess you should do your reverse Vampire thing when the sun comes up and I'll tell you what I found out. But doing anything will wait until morning. Because none of you are in any condition to go out there on your own. At all"

Chloe thought that her message sank in. She hoped that her message sank in completely.

"Wonderful, did you see anyone go out that door?" Clark asked her.

Chloe frowned about this unexpected line of questioning. It seemed like this night held more mysteries. And she hated to be left hanging by that.

"I'll make sure that no one comes across you in this state, are you sure you'll be good when the sun comes up?" Chloe asked without taking a breath.

"We should be," Kara confirmed, sinking down on one of the hay bales in the barn. She sighed deeply, crossing her legs.

"What did you find?"

* * *

**To Be Continued. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine: That's Got to Be Titan! **

* * *

True to form Clark, Raya, and Kara recovered after several hours. Granted it was a few more hours longer than they wanted to do.

"Each Phantom escalates the threat level," Raya whispered. "It's almost like the longer that they're on Earth, the more dangerous they are. And the tougher they are to put down."

Kara frowned. "Do you have any idea why this is happening? Or are we just guessing?"

"I have theories just as much as the next person," Raya admitted when she crossed her arms. "But I don't really know exactly why."

Clark got up and paced around. There had to be an easier way to take these Phantoms out. The young man paced around and looked like a bit of a caged rat. His eyes turned towards the girls who frowned at him.

"You're really obsessing about this one, aren't you?" Kara asked her cousin. There was a second where he blinked and nodded. "Don't obsess, please, don't obsess."

"That's what he does, I'm sorry."

Chloe showed up and she walked over towards the group. She felt like she was the fourth wheel here somehow. This was information that Clark needed to know.

"Please tell me that you have something that we can use to get the final two Phantoms," Clark said. He looked worn and ragged. Chloe never thought that to be possible.

"Sorry, we don't mean to put pressure on you," Kara said, getting to her feet and facing the blonde. "After all you've done, we never want you to feel like we're pressuring you to do more."

"No pressure, I did this work on my own, and…..well you might want to look at this," Chloe said, handing the printouts of the police report.

Clark saw the police reports in front of him. It was from an underground fight club that was busted up. He frowned deeply when he looked over the reports.

"The patrons were found mauled and the guards as well, and that's not what happened to the competitor that this guy fought," Clark commented. "He went on a rampage. He says that he'll rip up anyone who is in his way."

"The police couldn't handle someone like this," Kara whispered. Each autopsy report made the aftermath of major wars look quite minimal indeed. She felt sickened to her stomach.

"And while I was recovering, this guy blew through twenty opponents, and several of the people there who thought they were hard enough to pick a fight," Clark said, cracking his fingers. "We got to find him."

"Well, it's not like they advertise these things," Chloe commented and she raised her eyebrow. "You know, because it's one of those kind of underground fight club things."

Clark nodded and Chloe thought that she said the most obvious statement in the world.

"And they keep moving these things every night," Clark suggested and she blinked and nodded.

"Okay, here's the last three locations that they busted up, and the feed…..well there should be some kind of feed coming on tonight," Chloe told him.

The young man frowned deeply.

"Why don't you try and figure out what to do on your end and we'll figure out what to do on our end?"

Chloe wondered what they had in mind. She figured that they were ready enough to move and they wanted to get back into the action. It wasn't like she could stop them.

"Just be careful out there, this guy looks like he means business," Chloe said and there was a second that Clark corked his eyebrow.

"You know, so do I."

There was something about Clark's words that almost intimidated Chloe. He had been focused but nothing like this.

"I let them out, I've got to put them back in, that's my responsibility."

"Yeah, I know that," Chloe said. "But I think that sometimes you take too much responsibility for everything."

That was a statement that caught Clark unaware. He wondered if Chloe had a point. His eyebrow lifted when he looked at her. The blonde gave him one of those looks. It was one of those looks where he knew that she was right and she wasn't going to say anything more other than that.

"Maybe I do, but this is one thing that I can't worry about someone else doing it."

There were two more Phantoms left. The group needed to get through this. He turned to Raya and Kara.

"Are you two ready?"

"Yeah, about as ready as we're ever going to be," Raya said, more shaken than she thought.

This caught her completely and utterly off guard. She knew that this wasn't going to be a game when she went out. This was reinforced instantly.

* * *

"I'm glad that you're okay," Lara told the trio when they returned back to the Fortress. "But you were lucky to get out of that alive. The fact that you worked together managed to get you through that."

Lara longed for a day that she could rest easily. Unfortunately that day was a long time to come. With two Phantoms out there, the danger was still out there.

"We're glad that we're okay as well," Kara said, turning around.

"Your mother would be very proud of you for how you've handled this," Lara told Kara.

There was a second where Kara's smile broke out over her face. She was glad for this reassurance in ways that Lara would never believe.

"I know she would be," Kara said. She switched to business. "So is there any luck with the Phantom? Or are we just guessing?"

"Well, we're getting closer to finding where he might be, if that's what you're asking," Lara commented to her niece. "And this one is a dangerous one."

"Doesn't that go without saying?" Clark asked his mother. He tried to keep himself less intense and obsessed with this. It was hard to do that but he tried.

"Yes."

Lara cycled through the database in the Fortress and tried to bring him up. The large and hulking bald figure dressed in a red and black overcoat showed up on the screen.

"His name is Titan, and he's not good news," Lara said and she pressed herself on to avoid being told that her statement was obvious. "He has no concept of pain. He has no concept of morality. He's extremely dangerous and will rip the heads off of anyone who gets in his way."

"Oh, he sounds like some really good news," Kara said with a shudder.

"He was sent to the Phantom Zone and didn't go quietly," Lara continued to explain. "He has been searching the entire universe, looking for the greatest warrior the universe has ever seen. He wants an enemy that will satisfy his blood lust."

"He wants to die in battle," Clark said, reading the information.

"And anyone who is not worthy enough to do this will be killed instantly," Lara said in a cool voice. "There will be no exceptions to this rule."

Clark wondered where he could find this Phantom. He didn't trip off any of the sensors yet. That fact alarmed him. He wasn't a Phantom, he was completely corporeal and would have to be killed, he would have to be destroyed.

"I'm going to have to go after him."

Lara wondered if her son was ready. She realized that he was the only hope left out there. As a mother, she couldn't stop herself from being worried, it was in her nature.

"The problem is we don't even know where we can start," Clark whispered underneath his breath.

The man's arms folded calmly and he turned towards the computer. Raya shook herself out of her thoughts.

"If you want to sit this one out, Kara and I can more than handle it," Clark told Raya. Raya smiled and nodded.

"I can help you in other ways, although I'm not sure how much use I'm on the field," Raya said. "But all we have to do now is follow the carnage."

The carnage, that was a loaded word. Clark didn't know what to expect. There was a hissing and also a humming that echoed through the back of his head, into the depths of his mind.

"Okay, let's see if we can find where the next fight club is," Kara said. She didn't know anything about this places.

"If he's as ready and willing for competition like he says that he is, he isn't going to back down for a challenge."

"Especially if it's from a Kryptonian," Raya added, bringing up the information. She watched Kara and Clark leave the area of the Fortress.

Kara wondered how more dangerous this was going to get. The first couple of Phantoms seemed like a cakewalk compared to these creatures. She didn't want to worry herself or Clark about this.

"Just breath, Kara, that's what you've got to do, just breath."

Clark placed his hand on her shoulder.

"I know what you saw in there, but…sometimes you just got to let things go," Clark said. "I blamed myself for the meteor shower and all that happened and…"

"Do you still?" Kara asked Clark crisply. Clark didn't say much of anything. "Clark, do you still blame yourself for something that you had no control over?"

"Always," Clark said. "I'm the worst person to give you this lecture…."

"Maybe," Kara said with a frown on her face. "Or you could be the best person, you never know."

"I suppose that I could be," Clark told her. He didn't know what to say. "What did happen…"

"I heard the screams, I couldn't make it there in time," Kara responded gently. Clark placed his hand on the top of her hair. "The city was gone. I don't know what happened. It was completely gone. That's the last time I saw my mother. She gave me something before I left…..but how could she know that something was going to happen? And if she knew, why didn't she save herself?"

Clark wasn't able to answer the questions Kara gave him. He really wished that he could.

"You know, your mother must have been a remarkable woman to have a daughter like you," Clark said. "Is it….another crystal?"

"No, it's this," Kara said and she looked at it. "Your mother created the crystal to work with the Fortress. Mine….didn't. She didn't even know that you would be born. It isn't even a crystal, it's some kind of disc. And before you say anything, it wouldn't be read by any computer on Earth."

Clark figured about that much. He thought that it was remarkable how much Kara held things together. He might have been losing his mind in a situation like this.

"You know that it's all going to be okay, don't you?" Clark asked her and Kara smiled.

"You keep saying that Clark, just keep saying that, and it will come true," Kara said. She shook her head. "And we've got to take out a Phantom and this guy….he's far more dangerous than anyone else we've ever fought."

Clark understood that. He could hear Chloe in his ear and that brought him back to life.

"Yeah, Chloe, what do you have?" Clark asked.

"I think I found him, but you really got to move quickly because I don't think that he'll be here for long," Chloe commented to him. "He's going to have an open challenge tonight, every hard ass in Kansas would jump on this one if they found out about it."

Clark gave a grimace at the thought. He figured out about as much.

"So, we got to get to him before he causes some real trouble," Clark muttered. This statement was given more to himself to Chloe. "And if we don't track him down soon, there's going to be trouble."

Kara frowned. She could tell that Clark's obsession was getting strong. Not that she blamed him because she didn't. It did terrify her something fierce. She held onto his wrist and turned him to look into his eye.

"Are you…"

"Kara, I'm fine," Clark told her. Kara frowned. She swallowed the lump in her throat when he spoke to her.

"If you say that you're fine, you must really not be."

"Not to break up your little argument, but I got something," Chloe told him through the headset.

Clark's interest was grabbed.

"Okay feed it to me."

* * *

Titan sat in darkness. He wasn't going to sit in darkness much longer. His arms twisted around and folded over his chest. His eyes flashed into the darkness.

There was a knock on the door. Titan's head twisted towards the door. He gave a non-committal grunt.

The person on the other end of the door opened it up. He was pathetic. It wouldn't be worth it to rip his head off.

"Yes," Titan growled. He spoke one word but that one word inspired plenty of terror.

"They're….they're coming, some of them are ready to go into the cage," the aide said. He shivered when he spoke. Words failed him completely and utterly. "If you want to….well I just came to….."

Titan rose to his feet. A chilling gaze passed over the aide. The aide stepped backwards an inch. His chest inhaled and exhaled.

"I'll be out there," he whispered in a low growl.

"Yes, yes."

The Phantom Zone prisoner walked forward. Each step was long and took an immense stride. He kept walking himself into the arena.

He sensed that there was someone extremely dangerous. Titan paced down the hallway. The cheering of the crow didn't get to him. The heckling in the crowd got to him even less. It bounced off his head and kept yelling loudly.

"Ladies and gentlemen, are undefeated champion makes his way to the ring. He has a bodycount of a hundred and sixty three and counting. What challenger will be added to his record? Or will someone bring him down? All we can do is wait and see ladies and gentlemen!"

Titan took a stride down the ramp. Security walked next to him, protecting the rowdy observers from Titan. There was a large biker type in the real. He snarled looking at Titan.

"You don't so hard," the biker said. He cracked his knuckles.

Titan motioned for him to move forward. The biker rushed him and tried to punch his head in. Titan blocked his hand and hoisted him up into the air.

The biker took flight and slammed hard into the back of the cage. He grimaced when the top bars of the cage impaled him. Titan lifted his hand and choked him hard. His throat crushed in his hand.

The biker flopped down to the ground. Titan lifted his foot up and crushed his chest with one fell swoop.

"Are there any other challengers?" Titan asked. He snarled with fury.

From the rafters, Clark and Kara arrived.

"Too many people around, aren't there?" Kara asked. She grabbed Clark's hand to get his attention. He spun around to face her.

Clark looked down. There were a few problems with being seen by that many people. And no doubt there were many millions more watching through an illegal stream on the Internet.

"The first thing that we need to do is kill the camera feed and also the lights if possible."

Kara blinked and nodded. She looked around and allowed her observational skills to sink in. She returned to look at Clark.

"Leave that to me, and then you can worry about me," Kara said. She stole a quick kiss.

She hopped over the railing but the crowd didn't even bat an eye. Kara saw where the web camera was set up.

Kara noticed a pryo display right next to it. She squinted her eyes and sent a blast of heat vision towards it. There was a miniature explosion that went off.

Now the web cam exploded and the lights dimmed, Clark could make his way down there.

Titan looked into the darkness. He didn't care, he was born in darkness. The fire spreading through the arena was like home. It was like the Hellfire and Brimstone he often walked through.

"Maybe you didn't hear me!" Titan snarled. He was about ready to walk into the crowd. "If you don't come to me, I'll come for you!"

The door broke open with a fist and Titan saw a whirling fist catch him in the face.

The punch connected into his face. The monster fell down to the ground. He tasted something that he never tasted before.

It was blood. Not only was it blood, it was his blood. He never was more excited than he was now. He trailed his tongue over his lips, licking them drying.

"Competition, finally," Titan said. He spread his arms and gave a mighty bellow when he looked into the darkness.

Clark walked out. Titan recognized the features and the wave he moved.

"A living breathing Kryptonian," Titan said. With one solid swipe, he pulled a bone spike from his outfit. "Soon to be a dying Kryptonian. FIGHT ME!"

Titan rushed Clark. Clark dodged. He hit a series of rapid fire punches to the kidneys.

Slowly the monster turned around. His red eyes glowed in the dark. Titan grabbed Clark by the throat and hurled him up high. He crashed into the cage hard.

"Weak," Titan growled. He rushed him.

Clark slid underneath his attack. He shot a blast of heat from his eyes. Titan bent over and screamed in agony.

"I don't think that was too weak," Clark commented. Titan turned towards him. His eyes focused on him.

Titan raised his hand over the top of his head. He slammed his fist down onto the top of Clark's head.

Clark dodged his uppercut punch. He caught Titan's arm and snapped him down.

"GET THE LIGHTS BACK ON!

Kara made sure to take out the security guards before the took the lights back on.

Clark was trying to get Titan in position to do what Lara showed him to bring him down. He aimed his fist hard towards him.

Titan grabbed both of his arms. A loud snap echoed when he dropped down onto the ground.

Clark breathed. Blood drew from him. Titan kicked him in the face when he was down on his hands and knees.

His fist nearly took Clark out. He rolled out of the way and Titan punched through the canvas. His hand stuck into the canvas. He struggled to free himself.

Clark hammered his enemy with a series of jabs to the side of the head. Each shot weakened Titan. He aimed one shot to the side of the neck.

He connected with one might have been an artery. The thick muscles on his neck blocked him from taking him out.

"Try harder."

He wrenched a large metal hook out from underneath the ring. Security swarmed the cage and he swung the hook wildly. The lights flickered back on, in time for security to drop down onto the ground.

Titan raised his hand and tried to smash Clark with it in the face. He dodged each attack. The hook smashed into the canvas over and over again. There was no way to escape the pull of the hook.

The cage wall fell down and slammed on the back of Titan. He looked like a wounded animal trapped underneath a fence.

Clark took a deep breath. Did he take down the monster or not? There was a heavy breathing.

Titan ripped his way through the cage and got up to his feet. He approached Clark with rage dancing through his eyes. The monster tried to grab Clark around the throat and throttle him.

A blast of heat vision caught in in the shoulder. He wasn't as protected as he would have liked.

Clark raised two fingers above his hand and rammed it into the throat of his enemy. He flew backwards and he slammed down onto the ground.

His chest inhaled and exhaled. Then he got back to his feet.

Clark picked the bone spike off of the ground and lobbed it at his head at the speed of light.

The monster dropped to one knee. His breath became ragged. Blood spilled from his mouth when he tried to lift his head off. The weakness enveloped his body. For the first time he fought someone who he perceived to be a worthy enemy and he relished that moment.

Titan looked up to face Clark. Blood oozed from his mouth. The monster wasn't going to go down that easily. There was a second where he stared Clark directly in the eye. His madness flashed through his eye.

"Good fight," Titan whispered, grabbing onto Clark's arm. "Good fight."

Titan collapsed down to the ground, blood oozing from his body. Clark almost expected that he would sit up in a half of a second.

"We got to get out of here," Kara said. Her eyes nervously looked at Clark. "And get him out of here as well."

Clark lifted Titan off of the ground. He was almost four hundred pounds of dead weight.

There was only one thing to be said. If their calculations were right, there was only one more Phantom to go.

**To Be Continued. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten: Shadows of a Tormented Past. **

* * *

Clark wished that he could celebrate the doom of yet another Phantom. He and Kara lugged the remains back to the Fortress. There wasn't a single drop of blood on the ground when they left.

"So, he's dead," Raya said. She would breath a lot easier when they knew for sure.

"Given what you told me about him, he wouldn't stop fighting until the breath left his body," Clark said. The massive form of this demonic fighter known as Titan was lugged onto the Fortress floor. They slammed him down onto the ground.

"Sending him back to the Phantom Zone for a proper burial," Lara said. The transporter started up.

They rigged something up where they could transport the remains of the criminals back but nothing could escape out from the Phantom Zone. Clark collapsed onto a makeshift piece of furniture in the Phantom Zone.

"Not exactly the best décor in here, come to think about it," Clark managed. He was far more sore from that fight than he should have been. He would have recovered. If the last battle was taxing on the mental arena than this was taxing on the physical arena. "But, it will do in a pinch."

"It was supposed to be an arena for training and not an arena for luxury," Raya remind him.

"Yes, I know, but Jor-El could have made it look a bit more inviting so maybe he didn't have to fight me to come here," Kal said. He slapped his fist to the palm of his hand. He winced. The fact that he suffered pain indicated that he really suffered a massive beating. "And he would have been a lot better to be a bit more inviting himself."

"That's just Jor-El for you, he would have to make his AI a deterrent," Lara said. "Never mind though. Sit still and I'll scan you. You don't need to go out there and fight any more Phantoms unless you are at optimal health."

Clark sat perfectly skill. He was going up against enemies that were far more dangerous than ever before. It was a single obsession with these Phantom Zone entities that he didn't think would end until they did.

He was at the end of the road, one left.

"Do you have any idea what we're dealing with next?" Clark asked Raya.

Raya frowned. "I've been searching for it, Kal-El. I have not left myself idle at the Fortress while you and Kara were out there fighting them."

"Good, I hope that you weren't," Clark agreed. He stretched his shoulders rolling them back. He collapsed down with a groan and a grimace. "So, what do you have?"

Raya could forgive Clark's irritable mood. "I hoped that it wouldn't escape. But this video footage indicates that it did."

She punched up an image. It was grainy but they got the gist of it. A blood red entity overtook a young couple. Once the dust cleared, there was nothing left standing.

"This was Krypton's attempt to create the ultimate soldier, to make war all but obsolete," Raya said. Clark sighed, that about figured. "It was the perfect idea in theory. The Council might have never approved it."

"I was under the impression that the Council never approved much of anything," Clark answered. Kara sighed and patted Clark lightly on the shoulder.

"They don't," she agreed. She rocked herself back and forth for a moment to regain her bearings. "The Council approved this thing however…and well I think that I should let Raya explain to you. Or better yet, we should ask Jor-El."

"It was one of our ancestors," Jor-El said. It was because of the somberness of the situation that he jumped in without a thought. "The House of El has many skeletons in its past, my son. I will not lie to you on that point. And one of them created the ultimate weapon to be used. Eighteen scientists died to contain it but it was sent to the Phantom Zone by my great-grandfather. It lingered there forever more until the moment where you and Raya escaped the Phantom Zone and allowed it loose."

"We will just have to send it back," Clark said.

"It isn't that simple, Kal-El, during that time, it will have evolved and learned from its environment, it may have taken hosts to learn from them, but there is no human DNA that is advanced enough," Jor-El explained. "It will remain incorporeal unless it takes DNA from something more advanced."

"You're talking about us, aren't you?" Clark asked.

"Your father is talking about you, if it takes much from you, it will have powers even beyond you," Lara said.

"It?" Clark asked.

"It has no gender, it just merely exists," Jor-El responded. This answered the question.

"We don't even know where to begin, it could be anywhere," Kara said.

Clark had a couple of hunches suddenly. He hoped that he wasn't right. There were times like this where he hated when he was right.

"Lex," Clark muttered. "Chloe mentioned to me…..well I kind of brushed it off, that he was up to something."

"This Lex, he's your friend, isn't he?" Kara asked.

"In another lifetime," Clark remarked to him.

"What about Lana?" Kara asked.

"Kara, this doesn't concern her," Clark responded swiftly. "We…..well it didn't work."

After all those years, Clark felt that recently he completely and utterly put it behind him. There would always be that veil that he couldn't cross. A part of him always knew it.

"It wouldn't, you're right," Kara said. It might have been the harsh truth. "Whatever she is….I don't know, I've never met her, she would be long since dust when you were in the prime of your life….and for the record, I'm not saying to push anyone away."

"I figured that out a long time ago," Clark said. "And I also figured out that I can't pine after idealistic relationships."

"No, you've got us," Kara said. She smiled when she looked at him.

"Yes, and thank you," Clark said. "But, Lex is obsessed with creating the perfect soldier. The time Zod spent in his body, that must have given him some knowledge."

"Zod was well aware of the experiment and there were rumors that he tried to duplicate it," Jor-El responded. Whether or not he succeeded, Jor-El didn't elaborate any further.

Clark was more worried about the present threat that stared out in front of him now. He looked around the Fortress.

"Your friend is trying to contact you," Lara said. Clark perked up. "You want me to patch in her on through?"

"Yes," Clark said. There was only one person who was staying in constant contact with him during this entire Phantom Zone mess.

"Clark, are you there?" Chloe asked.

"I'm here," Clark said. He could hear the graveness in Chloe's voice. "What's wrong?"

Chloe took a deep breath and considered what she was about to tell him. "Okay, I don't want you to shoot the messenger or anything but…there are problems of the Luthor sort going on. I'm not sure what it was but…Lionel's been asking me where you were."

"You didn't tell him anything, did you?" Clark asked. He was unsure where he wanted to go with this one.

"No, I knew that it was too important, but he says that Lex is dangerously close to doing something that's going to put the Earth in peril and Lana…well I don't want to distract you," Chloe said with a response. "She's…things aren't exactly harmonious in paradise. It appears that even when you're not there, you cause trouble."

"I guess it's in my charm," Clark said dryly. "What's Lex up to?"

"I was hoping that you could figure that out….and I'm trying to say that you're gone but…..well my excuses aren't going to hold water for much longer," Chloe said.

"Once I find the last Phantom, there will be no need for any more excuses, I'll be back full time," Clark said. "Until I find the last Phantom, I can't go home."

"Well, you might be closer to it, it's up North….but further down South….there was a sighting….another attack in Canada, a family of four were found slaughtered, and there was a witness who saw the red shadow," Chloe said. "It's the latest of a series of very Bizarre murders."

"It's trying to learn from its surroundings," Clark reported to her. "And we've got to stop it, without engaging it."

"So, is this going to be as easy as sending it back to the Phantom Zone?" Chloe asked.

"Oh, I wish it was, but eighteen scientists died trying to stop it and who knows how many more other than that before my ancestor managed to send it to the Phantom Zone," Clark said. He paused. "It's based off of the House of El line….it is based off of our DNA."

"Among others no doubt," Kara said with a frown. "But I don't think that it's too picky about who it chooses."

The trio understood that they had to find this Phantom. There was a chance, albeit an outside one, that Lex was looking to track it down as well.

They hoped that what they did next wouldn't be considered to be suicidal.

"We're going to have to find the Phantom before he does," Clark said.

"He won't be able to contain it any more than the next person," Kara said. She frowned deeply in frustration.

There was an implied thought that stated that she thought that they would not be able to hold the Phantom any more than they did.

"Eighteen scientists died," Clark said to Chloe. "You know how dangerous this is."

"But how much of a chance does three super powered Kryptonians have?" Chloe asked.

There was a frown that Clark had. "Actually it's less of a chance that you think. If it copies our empowered DNA…..there will be trouble."

* * *

Clark went to check up on Lex but he was completely gone, without a trace. That worried him in some way.

"He's got to be around here somewhere," Clark said. He curled his fist up in frustration. Kara reached forward and grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Listen, you can't be beating yourself up….not now," Kara said. She firmly turned him around. She could see the stress of hunting all of these Phantoms were starting to weigh on Clark. She could see that the stress was slowly causing him to lose his sense and maybe his mind.

"You're right," Clark said, letting out his breath in one exasperated sigh.

"I was wondering when you'd show up."

Clark spun around and he saw a man standing in the shadows.

"Not the Luthor that's I'm for," Clark said. He stood up as straight as he could.

"Yes, well, we can't be choosy if an opportunity has fallen into your lap and…..my son is playing with fire that he doesn't understand yet again," Lionel said. He stepped out of the shadows. "His little…..plans have gone off the deep end. His possession may have knocked something loose. It goes to show you, be careful what you wish for, because you'd get it in ways you could never imagine."

"Are you trying to say that Lex has finally become the son that you wanted?" Clark asked.

"He's always been the son that I needed, but until I went through my own awakening, I never thought of that," Lionel said. "But the apple doesn't fall from the tree. Especially when it falls off, rots off, and dies, and leaves a decaying husk."

Lionel handed Clark something.

"It's everything I can find out, everything that I know, it may give you a clue of where Lex is heading if you can…"

He noticed the blonde standing next to him.

"Not your normal blonde sidekick," Lionel muttered underneath his breath. He had been so distracted that he had not noticed her until now. That was some rather poor form on his part.

"Not my sidekick," Clark said. Kara smiled.

"That's a story that you may need to tell in another time, another variable that I hadn't foresee and neither had Lex….good I'd keep that under wraps as long as you can," Lionel said. He rubbed the side of his head. "I can feel that it's getting closer to us. My connection as the Oracle, it goes stronger and whatever modifications you've made…..it's made things clearer now."

"You're not making any sense," Clark replied.

"That's because there's very little sense to be made of a situation like this, son," Lionel said.

"The Phantom has struck again," Raya whispered in Clark's ear. "A family of four and…..this Lex and his men have arrived in an attempt to contain it."

"I need to contain it."

Lionel's bodyguard stepped into the picture. "I'm afraid that's not wise, Mr. Kent."

"I'm sorry, but have we met?" Clark asked.

"Yes, at the barn, when the Phantom psychically attacked you," the man said. "Your father, Jor-El, he insisted…"

"Did he now?" Clark asked.

"While he needed someone to keep an eye out on you, it was obvious that role has been taken," he said. He looked over towards Kara. Kara stared back at him. It clicked in her mind.

"Martian," she whispered.

Clark was caught off guard with what she said. He raised his eyebrow and cleared his throat. "Excuse me?"

"I'll explain later," Kara said swiftly. She couldn't believe that this person of all people showed up but in a way, she believed that he did.

"Yes, now that all of the secrets have been told, we're on the same side, at least for now," Lionel said. He wanted to get to the fact of the matter. "Are you working on a way to contain the Phantom?"

"I have a feeling that your son thinks he has a way to contain him," Clark said.

"What he believes and what he knows are two different things," Lionel fired back. There was no question about it. "And his….bride has gone missing. Anything she might have known…it's under the bridge now."

"Do you think that he made her…"

"At this rate, I no longer know where my son is coming from, but I know that we have to take him down for his own good," Lionel said. "If he unleashes this entity, there will be no telling what could happen."

"Eighteen men and women died the last time," Clark whispered. "I know."

"Then you must find a way to exterminate it….."

"It must not expose itself to your DNA," Lionel's bodyguard said. "My name is J'onn J'onzz, as I mentioned your father asked me to keep an eye on you."

"So you owed him a favor," Clark said.

"No favor needed, but yes in a sense," J'onn agreed. "But we can talk about past events later. Now's the time to move."

* * *

It hungered for something greater that it had. The bags of flesh on this planet were far less appealing than the bags of flesh from the home of its creation.

It hunted for something more durable. They put it away. It escaped with the rest. It sensed that the rest was gone.

It opened its mouth and there was a scream. It latched onto the young child that it dove at. It wrapped its steady grip around it.

Power, this child didn't have it.

"Must find it," the child whispered in a strangled voice.

"There it is."

It saw a man. He had the similar taint from it. He was once possessed by one of the occupants of the prison.

"Yes, I see it!" the child whispered. Several tranquilizer darts shot into the child's neck.

It was trapped in the body of the child. Trapped until its power would degrade the vessel and then it would move on aimlessly. It would not be returning to the Phantom Zone.

"You…..power…"

The man walked forward and had the child lifted up.

"Yes, power," the man commented. The child's eyes bulged before him. "We have only six hours, transport it. We need to extract the final sample. We'll have the weapon that will destroy anyone who stands in the way of Earth. It won't happen again. I will be the man that will save Earth."

The child was sedated but suddenly it began thrashing about like a fish out of water. It tried to snap the straps with one fluid shot. No matter how hard it fought it remained caught in place.

"Nooooo!" the child whispered in a strangled moan. "See you!"

"It's about as intelligent as its host," one of the men said.

Lex Luthor looked towards the scientist when they loaded it onto a transport vehicle. "Then make sure it doesn't transfer itself into a vessel that can cause some damage. We have less than six hours, move it."

The child was strapped on a gurney. Blood poured from the young child's eyes. It screamed and trashed.

The ultimate weapon was at hand. It was so close.

"We got to get this up in the air now!"

X-X-X

Clark zoomed towards the house at the speed of light. He showed up, realizing one extremely important thing.

The person he searched for was gone without a trace. The rest of the family was slaughtered. Kara showed up next to him.

"Rao damn it, I thought that we would have had him," Kara said. She clenched her fist tightly. Clark grabbed her hand and squeezed it. There was a lengthy sigh when she smiled.

"Maybe we have more than we think."

Clark pulled out a device that he rigged up thanks to some equipment in the Fortress. There were specks of the blood on the ground. He filtered it so it could isolate trace amounts that were not human.

"That's the blood from the host…the latest host," Clark explained.

"And it's mixed in with some kind of tranquilizer," Kara said, frowning deeply. "Someone managed to sedate it."

"For a few moments yes," Clark said. He heard something.

He rushed outside and saw an unmarked aircraft. He heard a moan coming from inside the aircraft. The sounds of something thrashing and trying to break free echoed.

Clark's blood ran cold. He knew that this wasn't good. This was worse than not good in fact. The young man had to get up there as quickly as he can.

"CLARK!" Kara yelled frantically. Her words fell in deaf ears.

The screams got even more prominent and horrifying. The loud echoes resounded off of the walls of the plan. There was a loud thump when the creature tried to escape.

Clark could hear the screams to sedate it. There was no sedation possible. There was absolutely no hope possible. Clark's blood continued to run even more cold when he edged closer.

The heavy breathing increased and Clark wondered if he could bring that creature back.

The aircraft nearly went down to the ground. Clark dove towards it.

He grabbed onto the aircraft and held it up. He struggled with it. No matter how hard he tried, it was a struggle to hold it up.

It was going to plunge hard through the ground if he wasn't careful. A loud thump echoed when the aircraft crashed hard or would have if Clark didn't slow the descent.

"Kal, Clark, listen to me extremely carefully," Raya said. "I believe that I have a way to contain it. It's a one in a million shot to even try though."

Clark frowned. "At this point, I'll take those odds."

"Very well," Raya commented. She understood Clark's tension and she felt equally as tense as well. "Here's what we're going to have to do."

There was a sound of a wild animal ripping against metal. The shouts to sedate it once again could be heard.

By some miracle, the young body possessed by the Phantom was hauled off.

"We only need to get it a little further to properly extract a sample!"

Clark and Kara stood by. They would follow it to its destination and hopefully while everyone was distracted by the process, they would be able to bring it back in.

Time stood by carefully. Kara, Raya, and Clark knew that if they could stand together, they would triumph against this final Phantom, just like they triumphed over the others.

"Move quickly, time is running out," Raya said. "You need to send everything, vessel and all into the Phantom Zone."

"But that's…" Clark protested. Raya snatched his words out of midair when she spoke yet.

"Yes, I know it's a child, who was already dead the moment that the creature used it as its vessel."

* * *

"Close," the Phantom whispered in a strangled voice. "Power!"

"Oh you will give me power, power to save the world," Lex said. He looked into the blood red eyes of the thrashing child. It looked hideous. "I thank you."

After all of the problems, he was finally going to do something to atone for all of the sins of the past. He was going to pay all back, with interest.

"Extract the sample, I'll figure out what I need from him."

The Phantom sensed that it's ticket for being complete was close. All it needed is patience.

**To Be Continued. **


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven: This is the Moment. **

* * *

Clark knew that for better or for worse this was the moment. What was said about the Phantom, this was the biggest test that he ever had to encounter but he knew that he wasn't going to encounter it alone. He was going to stand by with his mates and that was just the tip of the iceberg of the help that he has.

"So, I can't believe this, it's come down to this one way or another," Clark said. Kara's hand clasped him. "I know what you're thinking. And I know what you're going to ask. The answer is that I'm prepared to do it. I'm prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. One way or another."

"That's good," Kara said. She allowed a breath to pass through her body. "That's good, I'm glad."

She understood that there was going to be some big problems if Clark paused for one moment.

"Are you nervous?" Kara asked.

Clark turned around towards her. "Are you?"

"We're not going to get anywhere with this circular line of questioning," Kara said. She switched tactics. "Raya, are you in position?"

"I'm ready and able, and at your disposal," Raya said. She seemed a bit shaky when she spoke. Seconds passed before she did. "I don't suppose that it would help to tell you to be careful."

"It might help a little bit," Clark said. It normally didn't but there was a first time for everything.

Lex's security was pretty tight. He doubted that man of them knew the danger of what they were guarding. Clark wasn't about to enlighten them on the fact. He knew that they would be completely horrified.

Kara saw the opening towards the central gate. There was no question about it, that was there way in.

"Whatever happens, I love you," Clark said and he darted inside.

"Well, nothing's going to happen, but I love you as well," Kara said. She rushed behind him. This might have not been the time or the moment to have a moment. All she knew was her tension raised.

There was an inhumane scream coming from the lab. The screams could be heard when she approached closer.

"Guards," Kara whispered. She gripped Clark around the hand and pulled him into the next hallway.

The guards made their way down the hallway. They combed the surrounding area with their flashlights. There was nothing there.

"I thought that I heard someone," one of the guards commented. "Maybe we should have told Mr. Lew-Thor….."

"Otis, you're new here, so you're forgiven, but trust me, you don't want to interrupt a Luthor when he's obsessing," the guard commented. He clicked a light on the flashlight and shined it for a moment. "Our shift is going to end in a moment anyway."

Clark and Kara hovered above the line of the sight of the guard. The shift was about to end which meant that it was the perfect time to go in.

They were found here, they would be deader than dead. Or at least captured and subject to experimentation. Lex had facilities that would hold the meteor infected. It stood with reason that it would be able to hold Kryptonians as well.

"Okay, this way," Clark said. He didn't know this place like the back of his hand and the information Lionel gave him proved to be outdated.

Clark stopped and paused. There was a security alarm sensor. Kara reached into the side panel and calmly disabled it.

"Disabling it might be just along the same lines of setting it off if we're not too careful," Kara said. She regretted doing that.

Security was lighter than it should be. They thought that they might have been let into a false sense of security when they further dipped down.

"Okay, this way," Clark told her.

The two of them slipped down. Kara tried to use the security codes but the door was not responsive.

"Damn it, this should work, why isn't it?" Kara whispered. Clark placed his hand on her shoulder.

Kara sighed. She hated to have to go down this road. Being subtle really wasn't working out for her that well. The blonde reared her hand back and smashed it into the side of the door repeatedly. She dented the door and it cracked open.

"I guess we're in," Clark said.

Kara shrugged in agreement when the two of them entered inside. The two of them quickened the pace when the further entered the room.

"And nothing's in," Kara said. She could have screamed.

There were footsteps and another loud scream. There was a second where Clark and Kara paused.

"Freeze there!"

Despite all of their attempts not to be seen, the security guards caught both of them. Seconds grindedby when they had their guns at their backs.

"Just keep your hands on the top of your heads and turn around slowly," the guard said. Mr. Luthor was going to be really interested to see that someone was creeping around.

Kara and Clark locked eyes with each other. It was a mark about how much their bond solidified that they were able to communicate without words. The two of them swung around and let out a duel blast of super breath.

All of the guards toppled over like dominoes and crashed to the ground. They landed hard with a thud.

"I don't think that they saw our faces," Clark said.

Kara threw them out into the hallway and made sure they were knocked unconscious. She returned to Clark. He stared back at her. The sheepish expression didn't leave Kara's face.

"That was to make sure that they stayed that way," Kara said. There was no question about what she was doing.

Chloe was patched in. "You know, I might have something. I've been working with Raya and I think that your person is beneath you."

"Then that's where we're heading," Clark said.

Chloe hitched in her breath and gave him some more good news. "That's not all, that's not the only person down there. Lex is down there too."

"Well, I had to face him at some point," Clark said. He wasn't going to be seen, not if he could help it.

He clutched the crystal in his hand. He could end this and stop whatever madness Lex was working on beneath.

"We could try the elevator," Kara said.

"Elevator doesn't work here," Chloe inputted over the communication link. She shot that problem right in the heel. "But, the stairs should work….and I don't suppose it will help to tell you to be careful."

"There's a first time for everything."

Clark clutched the crystal in his hand. He was so completely close, that he could feel it.

If he sent this Phantom back, he could finally breath easily. Would there be other problems? Yes there would be.

The loud and inhumane shriek could be heard. Kara felt her ear sting from the backlash of the scream. She turned around and looked at Clark.

"We're getting way too close," she muttered. It was time for them to go on in and face it. One of Krypton's greatest mistakes and one of the greatest mistakes in the House of El.

* * *

Lex watched the sample be extracted from the body of his captive. Seconds ticked by. He was a patient man and could wait it out.

"Power, it's an interesting thing, isn't it?" Lex asked. He was calm and almost sad. "I'm sorry about the necessity of things. Sometimes things have to be done for the greater good of the world. And your time has run out, hasn't it?"

The creature gave a pained groan. It was hooked to the machine and energy extracted from it. Its hideous screams continued to grow prominent and strong.

"The power of necessity, but it will be over soon….."

Lex's words trailed off. There was a blinking inside the building. The lights were dimming.

He went to call for security but it appeared that something was wrong.

"Closer, closer," the creature groaned. The boy's head looked like it was contorted.

"The vessel is breaking down sooner than I thought," Lex said. He slammed his hand on the console.

The DNA was about to he extracted. He was running a race, a race he intended to win.

"You're closer, just a little bit more," Lex said.

"CLOSER!" the boy whispered and the straps containing him broke free.

With a ravenous fury and a strength surprising, Lex felt the boy dive for him. The boy knocked him hard into the ground.

"I have what I came for, you're no longer useful," Lex said. He pushed a tranquilizer into the back of the boy's neck.

The boy deflated after an anxious moment. Lex wiped the blood off of his lip.

"And now my soldiers will take flight and the world will….."

The chamber overloaded. Something was wrong. The sparks flew and Lex walked forward to see what was happening.

"Stay with me, stay with me," Lex said. He couldn't let it slip away. Not when he was this close to holding the keys to the world.

Something rushed at him from behind. He couldn't turn around in time. His face was slammed into the console.

"Security will be on our ass in about two minutes, we need to move," Clark said.

Kara applied enough pressure to the back of Lex's neck to make sure that he didn't wake up.

"There's something wrong," Kara said. She thought that she spoke the most obvious statement in the world. Sparks started to fly above her head. The whirling and loud blaring of alarms caused her to grow increasingly rigid. There's something really wrong here.

The loud sirens put Kara on her toes.

"It's going to free itself, if you don't act now," Raya warned them.

There was an explosion and the lights went out.

The backup power was restored and there was only one problem. The Phantom was gone.

* * *

"I can't believe that something like this would just fall off the face of the Earth like this," Clark commented. He wanted to punch something or someone.

Kara grabbed Clark's arm and turned him around. The young man stared her right in his eyes.

"At least we took that DNA sample Lex extracted," Kara said. She held the vial in her hand and twirled it absent mindedly between her fingers. "And with any luck….."

"We can use it to track it's exact location," Clark commented. He frowned. "I wonder why it didn't attack us. I was under the assumption that if it got close, it would…..well you know, it would attack us."

"I wouldn't turn my nose up at a small favor if I was you."

Clark and Kara stepped forward and saw Raya standing there, waiting. The crystal vial held between Clark's fingers when he approached her.

"Do you have it?" Raya asked.

"Yes, we have it," Kara confirmed. Raya's face grew extremely serious when she walked it forward.

"Be extremely careful with it, even a small sample of this DNA could cause trouble," Raya said. She place it into one of the slots of the Fortress scanner.

"During it's time in the Phantom Zone, it has slaughtered several of the prisoners, learned from them, evolved, but there was nothing that caused it to sustain a corporeal form in there," Lara explained grimly. "It must have not recognized you. We need to find it, contain it, but without a vessel, that's easier said than done. And if it takes one of you…"

"Which it won't," Clark said. There was a blip on the screen.

"It's on the move again, "Raya said. "It's heading towards the Fortress."

"It can't have known that we were here," Kara said. She suddenly paled. "The DNA sample…..it's tracking it's own DNA. It wants to become whole again for some weird reason."

Kara wondered if it was a good idea to bring the DNA sample here so they could track them. A look of worry spread over her face. Clark threw his arm over Kara.

"Let it come," Clark said. Kara turned towards her.

"Are you feeling alright?" Kara asked.

"I'm feeling fine," Clark said. "It's better it be here at the Fortress and not in a place where countless innocents can be injured."

"He's correct," Raya agreed. They turned to Lara.

"Yes, he's correct," Jor-El said, cutting in front of his wife. He was oddly quiet during these moments. Almost as if he had a lot to think of. "If all else fails, the Phantom Zone portal is at hand. But it will not go inside easily."

"You should know by now, I don't do easy."

"Yes, you take after your mother in that regard," Jor-El said.

"And what was that supposed to mean?" Lara asked. That caused Jor-El to become silent.

"It's time," Clark said.

It approached the Fortress closer. If he timed this right, there would be no need for any more bloodshed.

In some way, Lex had given them perfect bait to trap the Phantom. In some weird way, he did help them.

Clark didn't really know how to feel about that one to be honest. It was one of those instances where he was just going to go with it.

* * *

It approached the Fortress. It was created and wanted a purpose. It wanted a form and it wanted strength. Strength and power, that was the epitome of everything that it desired. Its hands raised in the air.

The Fortress resembled it's hated place of creation. The scientist who created it pretended to be its friend. The scientist was no friend.

It was nothing but a lab rat. It was a prototype for something more dangerous. Grown to be a soldier and then disposed of when it grew a state of independence past its intended purpose. But it will show them, it will show them all.

The prototype, the phantom, it would be something stronger. The remaining children of Krypton were here. Their empowered DNA was what it needed to become whole. And they aided and abetted the bald man in stealing its DNA.

Once it found its place back, it would kill them. It would kill them all. Crush it underneath its grip to the point where there was nothing left standing.

Flesh, it must have flesh.

There was a bolt of energy coming out of the Fortress. The Phantom shook wildly. It would not be sent back.

Eighteen scientists died to try and contain it. That was when it was weak. In a matter of minutes, it would be strong.

The DNA was in the Fortress. The Phantom rushed towards the gates.

A pulse of energy rocked it and sent it flying back. There was a loud scream when it struck the gate and hard.

"Head's up!"

A large block of ice hurled through the air and smacked the Phantom. The Phantom flew backwards, the ice block crushing it's head. Or it would have if it had a head.

Kara wished that she wounded it. The creature was this close to attacking her and Clark.

"Clark, the crystal, why we have a chance!" Kara yelled.

Clark was already in there no sooner that Kara spoke. The young man rushed in at the speed of light. He was about ready to plunge that crystal into the chest of his adversary.

Only the adversary was not there. Clark was knocked down onto the ground just like that.

Kara realized the creature was stalking them. The Arctic wind was giving it a cover. The Phantom got extremely close to them. It was approaching them and it was nearly on top of them.

Clark held the crystal up. If he could get close enough, they would have a chance.

The Phantom was not going to give them that chance. It batted the crystal from their hands like they were absolutely nothing. The crystal crushed in the hands of Clark.

"The portal is the only thing we have now!" Kara yelled. She could see Clark down on the ground.

She saw the Phantom rushing towards him like a blur. Kara rushed into place and used her heat vision to deter the Phantom.

"No!" the Phantom growled. "Must have it!"

Kara picked up one of the crystal fragments. She hoped that it would be potent enough to send it back.

She had one clear shot so she really had to make it count. The blonde kicked herself high into the air and aimed the jagged crystal piece.

Said jagged crystal piece slammed into the chest of the enemy. Kara ripped the glowing fragment into her enemy. The crystal vibrated in her hand.

For one brief second, Kara thought that it work. She let out the breath she was holding in. The blonde could have done a dance if she hadn't look so absurd.

"KARA!"

Clark grabbed her out of the way and the Phantom was gone in a blast of light. The two of them landed on the ground with each other. Kara plopped right on top of Clark when he landed back first onto the snow. All and all, she would have had to say there was far worse landings.

"We did it, oh thank Rao we did it," Kara said. She placed her arms around Clark's neck. She could barely stand up straight.

"Did you do it?"

Kara didn't like the sounds of that. Her heart started pounding several beats across her chest. The blonde turned her head around and opened her mouth.

She could see something standing in the wintery snow. That something had shorter blonde hair that she had that was kind of unruly. Her blue eyes were kind of greenish more than a sky blue. Kara saw her figure grow a bit more mature.

"That's the Phantom," Clark whispered. The Phantom grew more of a form or maybe more of a figure would have been the idea.

"Yes, that's the Phantom," Kara agreed. Her heart drummed against her chest when she held her arms towards her chest. "Great Rao, that's the Phantom."

"Call me Galatea."

She rushed Kara immediately and slammed her hard into the ground. Kara struggled underneath Galatea's grip. Her hand forced herself onto her bicep and squeezed it.

"Kara hang on!" Clark yelled. He rushed the Phantom from behind.

Galatea turned around and slammed her fist into Clark's chest.

"Ah, you're cute," Galatea said. She licked her lips. "I might keep you as a pet."

She picked up Clark and hurled him halfway across the Artic. She slammed him hard onto the ice.

Kara got up, her face scratched up in the combat.

"Now, where were we?" Galatea asked mockingly. "Oh yeah, I was about ready to kick your ass."

"Yeah, we'll see," Kara said. Determination flowed through her eyes.

The two blurs shot at each other. A huge sonic explosion went off when the two of them cracked into each other.

**To Be Continued. **


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve: Mirror.**

Kara flew at her demented double at the speed of light. Both of her fists cracked against Galatea's face. She pushed back and was knocked down onto the ground.

"You know, just admit it, I'm better and more evolved than you are," Galatea said. She slammed Kara down to the ground. The blonde's determination, both of them, were extremely scary. Kara pulled herself up to a standing position and hitched a breath.

"You know, no matter what I'll never stop fighting," Kara whispered. There was something harsh about her tone.

"And I'm proud of you for that, honey, I really am," Galatea commented. She wrapped her arms tightly around Kara's head and started to squeeze her. Kara struggled, gasping for air. It seemed no matter what, she couldn't get this tight grip out from around her head. "But, you got to admit, that I'm just a little bit stronger."

Clark rushed forward and grabbed Galatea, pulling her away from two handfuls of hair. She was hurled down to the ground.

"Oh, that's nice," Galatea said. "Kara, you really need to learn how to train your pets. Here let me show you."

She went at Clark with a flying kick. She flew at the speed of light at him. The very last second before she connected, Clark grabbed her leg. Clark whipped her hard down onto the ground and went for her.

He tried to nail a pressure point on the side of her neck. Galatea blocked it.

"Lara, teach you that one," Galatea commented. There was a condescending tone to her voice. She smiled and headbutted Kal in the ribs which doubled him over. "Don't worry, she taught me that as well, along with this one."

Galatea screamed when Kara nailed her from behind with heat vision. The blonde turned around and fired her heat vision back in kind.

"I don't break that easily," Galatea whispered. She closed her hand and opened it. She lifted it high in the air and sent a whirling punch down into Kara's chest.

Kara felt herself doubled over and the wind was completely knocked out of her body.

"I don't break that easily at all," Galatea commented, practically taunting Kara. There was a sinister look flashing through her eyes.

Clark grabbed Galatea by the hair from behind and pulled her through the entrance of the Fortress. Both of them crashed into the water through it.

Kara coughed. She shook her head.

"Raya, get the portal ready, Kal's in position, but we've got complications," Kara said.

Raya's nervous tone came through. "Exactly what complications."

"Well remember the one thing that wasn't supposed to happen?" Kara asked. She sighed. "Yeah that did, that really did."

"I was really afraid of that," Raya whispered.

Kara followed Clark towards the entrance. She didn't see her demented double anyway. The blonde took a deep breath and sighed.

"Clark?" Kara asked nervously. The extremely unsettling silence was unsettling.

Galatea smiled when she looked around the corner.

"You know, you shouldn't have followed me in the first place," Galatea commented.

She rushed Kara but Kara dodged the attack.

"What did you do with Clark?" Kara asked.

"Don't worry, I didn't kill him," Galatea commented. She lazily blocked all of Kara's attacks. It was almost like she saw Galatea's attacks coming before Galatea even delivered them. "I wouldn't have killed him, trust me on that."

"I find that hard to believe," Kara said through extremely gritted teeth. She aimed a punch at Galatea's head.

Galatea grabbed her arm and flipped over the back of her head. She sent a double knee strike to the back of Kara's head. She folded Kara's arm behind her back and pushed her down onto the ground.

"Sorry, you lose," Galatea whispered.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."

Raya turned up and held a glowing piece of Kryptonite in her hand. Galatea laughed at that.

"Well, that's the right idea, but it doesn't work that way because that particular flaw has been ironed out of my system," Galatea said. She grabbed Raya's hand and twisted it.

Raya dropped down to one knee and Galatea slammed him in the stomach. The blonde dropped down onto the ground.

Clark returned and grabbed Galatea around the back of the head. He tried to launch her over.

"Oh, you're going to send me back," Galatea said. There was a smug grin on her face. "Is that how you deal with all of your commitment issues?"

She used her heat vision to destroy the power supply to the Phantom Zone portal. There was an anguished scream from within the Fortress.

"Guess you're stuck with me," Galatea said. She brushed her fingers out of her hand.

Kara crawled forward and looked at her demented double. That plan was down the toilet and they had to find another way to deal with her.

"Guess you're going to have to kill me," Galatea said, and she kicked Clark in the ribs. "But how can you kill someone you love?"

Clark was placed with his back against the wall. He needed to get the leverage on Galatea. His breath rose and fell through his body.

"Are you going to kill me, Kal-El?" Galatea asked him. She spoke in a slightly sweet and demented little girl voice.

Kara dove down next to her and fired a kick to the back of her head. Galatea did a forward roll and she went behind her. The two blonde Kryptonians went face to face with each other and fired some shots at each other.

Galatea allowed a breath to leave her body. These attacks were rocking her back and she wondered why she felt so weak.

The yellow sunlight hit her body. She screamed when it felt like her skin got blistered.

"What's the matter, can't take a little sun?" Kara asked. She swung a fist into her face.

Galatea grabbed Kara around the arm. The younger blonde flipped her down onto her back. Now it was Kara who got the advantage.

"No, please," Galatea begged.

Kara wasn't about ready to fall for this. She knew better than to not take her eye off of the ball. If she did, there would be an insane problem. Her foot placed on Galatea's arm socket when she pushed her down onto the ground.

"The sunlight hurts her, just like it empowers us," Kara commented.

"Yes, I'm going to die, aren't I?" Galatea asked. She seemed weak and vunerable for a second. This was an about face from her normal smug attitude.

"You tried to kill us."

"That was my nature," Galatea said. "That's what I was created for. I was a weapon, I was a monster."

Galatea felt the sunlight leave her. She collapsed down onto the ground. Her breathing caused her body to return back to life. The strength returned.

"If you try and kill us….."

Galatea got to her feet and staggered. She slumped against the wall of the Fortress. There was a ringing in her head.

"I was the first, I was the prototype, you know that, don't you?" Galatea asked. Her face looked worn and battered. "And now if any of them escaped the planet, you're going to be the ones that are going to be killed. There can only be one, you know."

"What are you talking about?" Kara asked.

"I was supposed to be the dry run for it," Galatea commented after a moment.

There was a loud ringing in the back of her head. It was really hard for her to keep her head up. Her breathing increased for a second.

"They didn't escape, but if one of them did….or if someone adapted the research, it would be bad, bad for the world," Galatea said. Her lips curled into a wicked grin. "Just like I'm bad for the world."

She picked up the piece of broken crystal and tried to stab Kara with it. Kara blocked the crystal in both of her hands and she kicked Galatea in the ribs.

"You can't help yourself, you think it's in your nature," Kara said, and she had the crystal at Galatea's throat.

"Just like it's in your nature to be a hero, a little girl scout that rescues kittens from trees," Galatea said. "I guess I'm the cracked mirror version of you."

Galatea slackened in Kara's grip. The entire group in the Fortress was on pins and needles. Raya got down to her feet. She shook her head and gave a labored sigh.

"By all means, repair the portal, try and send me back, twenty eight scientists died trying to send me back the first time," Galatea said. "I have all of your powers and none of your weaknesses."

Clark activated the simulated yellow solar lamps. Galatea winced underneath the lights. She breathed heavily and her knees nearly buckled underneath her.

"You have your own weaknesses, don't you, what gives us life, will weaken you," Clark commented to her. "But you can be something other than what they made you."

"You are an idealistic idiot if you think I can be anything what they made me," Galatea said. "If you're the hero that this world needs, then this world is doomed. Do you hear me, you're doomed?"

"We'll see how doomed the world is when we're done with you," Clark commented. Galatea gave him a smile.

"Send be back, kill me, fuck me, just do something," Galatea said. She dropped to her knees in front of Kal.

Kara lifted her up to her feet by her hair.

"So, you thought that you can't be anything but what you were made for," Kara said.

"I don't think, Supergirl, I know," Galatea said and Kara turned her around. The two of them looked face to face with each other.

"I disagree." Kara commented. There was a moment where she held her in place.

"You do, don't you?"

Galatea broke away from her suddenly. She wondered what the hell was happening to her. Her mind was messed up because of the DNA she absorbed and turned her into this. She couldn't, she wouldn't, and more importantly she shouldn't.

"You know, we should go after her, "Raya commented. Her injuries, as grave as they seemed, did heal a little bit.

"We should go after her," Clark agreed.

Kara frowned suddenly. She hoped that she was right. If she was wrong, they would be screwed and they would no longer be having this conversation now or ever again.

"Are you okay, Kara?"

"Yeah, Clark, I'm fine, we better keep an eye on her," Kara said. She spoke of it like it was a person.

"I know it's hard, but don't forget that she might beyond your help," Raya said gently.

"Maybe we're all beyond help," Kara commented. She didn't really say much more than that. The blonde was fairly distracted when she turned around.

They were all beyond help and now she would have had to find her doppleganger. Put her down if she needed to but Kara was all about exploring her options. She tagged her when she was in the Fortress, so she wouldn't be so hard to trace.

* * *

Galatea had to get away from that place and clear her head. The monster that was in her was threatening to break out but there was something else inside her that was pushing it down. She had access to all of Kara's powers, all of Kara's abilities, and all of her memories. Those memories tainted her, distracted her, blinded her.

She collapsed halfway out into the Arctic. The winds continued to blow and she panted. Her face was reddened. Thankfully there was no sun here. She was weakened.

"Is this how it ends for me?" Galatea asked. "I survived the Phantom Zone, and now…..I'm here."

Galatea shook her head for a moment. She ignored the ringing in her ears. There was something that she had to do and she had to do it before the sun came out again.

There were answers she needed. What was her place in the world? Galatea shook her head. There was a ship hidden. The same ship brought Kara here.

She rose up and shot out like a cork. She went up, up, and away. The blonde felt the wind nastily assault her.

Her face might have blistered because of the light. Galatea held up the piece of Kryptonite she swiped. It allowed her to feed off of the energy. It killed her.

Her DNA was warped and dare she say that it was bizzare. She couldn't hold on much longer. The wicked wind caused her hands to clutch around the fragment nervously.

She crashed in the middle of a field. She rolled over and breathed heavily.

"This is where it all started, you know."

Galatea looked up and saw Clark standing there before her.

"You know, you followed me all the way here, for what?" Galatea asked.

"Because I want to know what you think that you are," Clark said.

Galatea sighed. They were really kind of thick. She told them what she thought that she was. It didn't matter what she thought. All that mattered was that she was here and she was here now. A monster, a monster that was too dangerous to live.

"I am, what I am," Galatea said.

"You've found humanity, haven't you?" Clark asked.

"I'm not human and neither are you," Galatea said. She lashed out towards him and tried to punc him.

Weak, something this weak deserved to be put down.

"We'll find a way to fix you," Clark said.

"Oh, wonderful, the son of Jor-El thinks of me as his science project," Galatea said bitingly. Kara and Raya dropped down next to her. "I suppose that your family always plays with things that weren't never meant to be tampered with. If they didn't, how could you explain me standing right here?"

"I'm sure that there's a pretty good explanation for you standing there," Clark commented. Galatea laughed and she seemed to be extremely amused for many reasons.

"The reason is that they created their perfect weapon and now….it's broken, by the same thing that gives Kryptonians life and strength," Galatea said. Her skin slowly cracked underneath the sunlight.

"Let's get you inside, we'll figure this out," Kara said. She picked up Galatea.

"You've always wanted a sister, but I'm sure you never expected it to be a hideous Phantom Zone monster, did you?" Galatea asked.

"How are you feeling?" Raya asked.

Galatea snorted at that. She was led inside, away from the light. She nearly collapsed.

"I shouldn't have destroyed the portal, I am going to die now, aren't I?" Galatea asked. "If you would have sent me back, I would have had a fighting chance. I just committed suicide. That's where your crusade ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper."

Galatea grew grim and accepting of her fate. There was a second where she flicked her eyes open.

"Kill me or let nature take its course," Galatea said. She got to her feet suddenly. Her strength was rather weakened and shaky. Her knees looked like they were going to knock together.

Clark didn't know what to do now. He could sense the desperation going through her voice. There was also the wanting for something else.

"Kill me, if you care about me," Galatea whispered. She dropped down to her knees. "My memories, my heart…..they clash with what I've intended to do."

"You're afraid aren't you?" Kara asked.

Galatea lashed out and tried to attack Kara. Her punch stopped short inches away from her face. Her breathing got even more heavy and labored. It was almost like she was trying to fight something deep on the inside.

"No, I don't fear this, I don't fear anything, that's something that you got to believe," Galatea commented. Her eyes narrowed in frustration. She wasn't about ready to die, now yet.

"I believe you," Clark commented.

He grabbed her around the waist and held her up. The door opened and J'onn poked his head in.

"You found it," J'onn commented. His voice was somber when he spoke. From his vantage point, it looked like Clark was going to restrain her.

"I didn't find it, I found her," Clark said suddenly.

"You need to kill it before it…..before it lashes out and kills you, like it did them," J'onn said. He stepped forward.

Kara stepped in front of the Martian Manhunter. Her chest lowered and fell when she looked into his eyes.

"You know, there are other ways, and I don't think that Jor-El, the real Jor-El, would have wanted his son to be a killer," Kara said.

J'onn frowned deeply. "You're right, he wouldn't. And if he lets the Phantom live, he will have killed countless."

"Yes, he's right, you've got to do it, before it overtakes me again," Galatea said. The crystal Clark held from the Fortress clutched in his hand. "Do it if you love anyone in this world. And if you love, Kara, do it…..because there is always this deep seeded…nature to destroy the original."

Clark stabbed her in the chest with the crystal and it caused her to land on the ground. Blood oozed from her mouth when she felt. The damage caused by the yellow sunlight caused her face to splinter.

"Are you happy?" Clark asked. "Is Jor-El happy?"

"Neither of us are happy, but you did the right thing," J'onn said. "Even though you won't be able to live with yourself."

Clark looked at the blood, her blood, which was Kara's blood, soaking the crystal. Galatea laid on the bed.

"I should repair the portal, give her a proper burial along with the rest of them….so no one gets their hands on any of her…..DNA," Clark commented.

"Yes, that would be the wisest course of action," J'onn agreed. "Why don't you take her and I'll clean up here."

"Yes," Clark said. He held Galatea's body in his arms and cradled her up against him.

He could feel her faint breath but it faded. He needed to get her out of here before J'onn found out. Raya and Kara looked at him in a questioning tone.

* * *

"I don't deny your heart, but I deny your sense sometimes, Kal-El," Lara said. She sighed and she could see Galatea laid in the Fortress in stasis, underneath a red solar radiation lamp.

"If yellow sun cripples her, than red sun will empower her," Clark said. "It's kind of a reverse matrix…..and if Red Kryptonite screws with our minds, maybe Red Kryptonite….."

"Heals her mind and makes her more sane thanks to constant exposure, and makes her normal," Raya said. "Are you sure, this is a big leap in logic? I don't even know if that's even possible."

Clark didn't really know. Science might not have been his thing all that much.

"Mother, I need to know if there's a chance…"

"It could very well work, but you're taking a huge risk, especially considering the fact that….Jor-El will know of what you're doing," Lara said. Her pause was lengthy and her breath was let out in a heaving sigh.

"He won't know," Clark commented. "She damaged his console. We haven't repaired it yet."

"Are you going to do that?" Lara asked. She was almost amused to hear that answer.

"We'll see," Clark said. He saw Galatea's body bombarded by the red solar radiation. Her vitals were present but rather weak.

"Tea, you'll be okay, I saw it in your eyes, you could have killed me," Kara commented. The fact her mind snapped so fast might have been jarring. "But you didn't."

"She could have and she still might if you remove her weaknesses," Raya said.

"Don't you think that I haven't taken steps to protect my mates," Clark commented.

He pulled out a box with a ring. It was red Kryptonite. Despite being immune to the effects, it still felt like fire in her hand.

"A little more," Kal whispered. He crossed his fingers and hoped.

Galatea's eyes flashed open.

* * *

**To Be Concluded in the Next Chapter. **


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen: The Awakening.**

Galatea tried to make some sense out of what might have not been the sensible. She woke up and there was a slight ringing in the back of her head. The blonde haired Kryptonian tried to shake her head and there was a moment where she figured out that something was a little bit off. She didn't know quite what was off but she knew that there was something that was off.

"How are you feeling?"

She remembered him to be Kal-El. The last son of the house who spawned her creation. This house meddled in things which it had no business to meddle it. Galatea remembered him well.

"The fact I'm not dead is quite odd," Galatea admitted. She looked up but she could barely move. She felt like she just died but got brought back to life. Her body hit the side of the bench hard when she tried to sit herself up. "Do I even want to know what just happened or am I just going to have to guess?"

"You were brought back from the edge of death," Kara explained. That caused Galatea's eyes to snap towards Kara. A frown deepened upon it when she stared down her younger counterpart.

"I'd ask if you were insane, but something tells me that I wouldn't like the answer to that one," Galatea commented. She tried to get up again but she found herself unable to do so. "And that really says a lot about my mental stability if you're the one that's insane."

"Maybe, but don't think that we're not taking steps to make sure that the worst didn't happen," Kara said.

"You think that something could happen but you brought me back," Galatea offered. She frowned when she looked at them deeply. "I'm going to question your sanity, all of you. It isn't exactly healthy what you're doing, you know."

Clark looked over her. So far her vital signs were completely clear although they spiked a little bit when her eyes focused on him.

"I'm messed up, and you should have put me down," Galatea commented. "You should have….."

Clark silenced her with a momentary kiss. His lips pressed against hers. Kara raised her eyebrow but wisely said nothing.

Seconds later, Clark retracted from her. The blonde's blue eyes blinked and she frowned. She shook her head.

"I forgot what I was going to say," she muttered underneath her breath. She was pretty sure that some kind lecture about how they should have killed her. How if they were sane, they would have killed her. The lecture was boiling in the back of her mind but she was damned if she could figure out where she was going with that one.

"That's the idea," Kara said. She had this wide and smug grin.

Galatea figured that this is where she got it from. She took a lot from Kara. Enhanced it in a few ways but she took it from her. She crossed her legs and stared at Clark.

"You've figured out a way to make me more stable," Galatea commented. She noticed the red Kryptonite ring on her hand. "It messes with your mind, but on me, it does the reverse, it fixes my mind."

Galatea smiled when she thought about that. She had to admit that was actually pretty clever. She honestly wished that she would have had an opportunity to think of it herself. Then again, with her mind being deranged as it was.

"How are you feeling?" Kara asked her.

Galatea corked her eyebrow when she stared her double down. "You want my honest opinion, don't you?"

"Yeah, honesty does help," Kara confirmed.

Galatea thought that was an interesting question. She wondered how she felt, how she really felt.

"It's honestly strange to feel this way, almost like I'm an entirely different person, but that might be the idea," Galatea said. She crossed her muscular legs and smiled at kal. "So did you get so sentimental after this Phantom Zone misadventure that you wanted to keep one of us as a pet or what?"

Galatea reached her hand towards him. Kara raised her eyebrow with a slight smirk on her face. There were some interesting thoughts that went through her head. With a smile on her face, she leaned forward.

"Are you sure that the Red Kryptonite didn't have any side effects on her?" Kara asked. Her curiosity bubbled forward.

"Maybe we should test me to see if it didn't," Galatea said and she got to her feet. Her legs wobbled but she reached forward. Her hands placed on either side of Kara's legs and she was held up. "Oh, this could be potentially hot, wouldn't you agree?"

Kara wasn't even close to arguing. This had the potential to get really hot and extremely steamy if they weren't careful.

"I wonder about something, if this would count as interest or masturbation," Galatea commented quietly. She looked mock insightful. "Well, I guess we're going to have to find out a moment from now. But you know what I think."

Her hands roamed Kara's body when she dipped behind her. They prepared to give Kal quite the interesting little show.

"Oh, don't slow down on my account," Clark commented. He looked at both of them.

"As much as I'd like to explore myself better, there's something that I want to do with you," Galatea commented. She stepped closer towards him, closing the gap between them. Her hands placed their way onto his waist and she gave him one of those sultry grins. "Perhaps you'd like to explore me and give me a nice little physical, hmm."

Galatea ran her hands down Clark's chest and started to unbuckle his pants. She eyed him with a wicked smile on her face.

"Do you think that you might be the one that's getting a bit physical with me?" Clark asked her and Galatea gave him a swift little smile.

"Of course, honey, anything that you want," she commented. Her hands started to travel all about his body and she was warming him up.

Galatea decided to plant a series of kisses down his chest. She teased herself just about as much as she teased him. She edged herself closer towards him.

She ran her hand down his pants and could feel the uncomfortable tightness.

"You know, if you're going to do this, you might as well do this right," Kara said. Her sister smiled when she got up to her feet.

"Well why don't you show me how to do it?" Galatea asked.

"It's all about positioning, Clark could you take about half of a step back?" Kara asked him. Clark obeyed her statement and Kara groped him. She gave him a slight pump. "If you don't get him at the right angle, then you won't be able to give the greatest pleasure."

She stroked him from the base all the way to the head. She smiled when she saw him.

"That's a mouthful," Galatea commented. She stroked her hair and grinned.

"It's more than a mouthful darling," Kara said.

Galatea pushed herself down to her knees and watched what Kara was doing them. Both them met at the center of him. Their hot lips attacked him and caused him a greater amount of pleasure.

Their tongues brushed against him. Kara demonstrated exactly what she wanted Galatea to do.

Galatea obeyed her sister. Her hot mouth wrapped around Kal's pole and brought him deep into the depths of her mouth.

"Oh that feels so good," Clark grunted.

"Yes, I'm sure," Kara said. She made sure to position Galatea's mouth. "Take your throat and take him into it, as deep as you can. Deeper, deeper, deeper, that's it."

Clark groaned. Her throat seemed to expand to accommodate him one hundred percent of the way. Galatea's strong hands grabbed his thighs and pushed her way down onto them.

"Play with his balls," Kara encouraged her.

Galatea's hand stroked his testicles and Clark groaned. He could feel a bubbling sensation going between his legs. He swayed when she worked him over. The blonde worked him over and her lips popped around him. She brought him deep into her throat and held onto her. She kept stroking him and working him over.

She decided for the next play. He groaned when he was denied.

"I want you inside me," Galatea said.

"Trust me when I say, you don't want to deny a Kryptonian woman sex," Kara said. "Even if you're as powerful as you are."

Galatea's strong thighs were this close to pushing down onto him. The blonde brushed herself against his thick phallus and was about ready to bring him inside her.

She was really tight, to the point where it was unbearable. Her hand gripped the back of his neck when he was brought into her.

"Just focus on how tight that I am," Galatea commented.

"No problem," Clark grunted. He pounded her insides. She started moaning when he worked back against her.

Kara smiled. She could hear Galatea's moans escalated when Kal worked into her body. It was a sweet symphony that caused her to smile extremely deeply.

"Work her hard, make her scream, that's it," Kara commented. She decided that she would muffle Galatea's moans just a little bit.

Kara spread her legs and Galatea buried herself between her thighs. She paid tribute to her sister, licking and slurping at her womanhood. The blonde continued to delve her tongue deeper and work it between her hot thighs.

It felt so good that Kara thought that she was going to explode with Galatea working her over.

Kal pounded her from the other side. Both blondes were hammered with increasing amounts of pleasure. Their bodies were about ready to explode in an epic amount of pleasure.

Galatea slumped against the wall. Her legs parted when she prepared to accept his gift. It oozed out of him and plastered in between her legs.

"That feels really good," Galatea agreed.

"Just wait, it's began, but first, time to return the favor."

Kara was between Galatea's legs and suddenly her older twin felt Kara's tender mouth latch between her legs. There was a mouth wrapped around her lips.

Clark hardened immediately. He pushed his hands on either side of her hips and ran them between her legs. He teased her tender folds and caused her pleasure to heighten.

Kal was this close to entering her from behind. The pleasure which was going to spread to her body was going to come through.

Kara felt the combination of Galatea's sweet juices and Clark rammed into her. Her mate stretched her out.

"Good, you're doing good," Kara breathed. She felt the pleasure blow through her body. It was a shame Raya had to step out for a moment and didn't get a chance to experience this.

They would have to make it up to her later, much later. Kara felt the pleasure explode between her legs.

"I've had a good teacher," Clark commented, whispering in Kara's ear. His hot breath was up against her ear. "A really good teacher, one who has taught me everything I knew and a lot more."

"Oh good, I'm glad, oh yes, I'm really glad." Kara panted. She felt him bury himself into her hard once more.

The blonde woman felt the pleasure spike between her hot thighs and he planted himself inside her again.

Kara's body thrashed.

"Ah, I don't think you can handle this as much as you think that you can," Galatea said.

Kara in response to that cheekily dug her tongue into Galatea's tight tool box. The older blonde felt the tender actions of the younger blonde.

It was amazing that they were in the Arctic because things were going to heat up. They were going to heat up a lot.

"And now really stimulate our senses, Kal-El," Galatea moaned. "See that's the spoils of war. You get to slay me with your mighty rod."

Galatea spread her legs and she felt him go into her.

"Am I too late to join the party?" Raya asked.

Kara turned towards her and there was a sultry grin flashing over her face. "No, Raya, you're just in time, come and join the party."

Raya sauntered over and she waited patiently for her turn with Kal-El. Kara sauntered over and prepared to treat her.

Did she have misgivings about this? She had more than enough but she thought that they could use the extra firepower.

Kal figured out a way to fix a flaw in an extremely obvious resource.

"And now focus on how tight my ass is, oh that's it, you know that I like that," Galatea moaned. She felt him inside her and it felt extremely good. She thought that she would explode from the added pleasure that he gave her.

The fact he treated her roughly, she could take that, she could take that.

"Yes, take your spoils of war, the spoils of this adventure," Galatea moaned at the top of her lungs.

Both Raya and Kara played with her as well. All three of them molested her and Galatea appreciated this attention. She was forming a sense of identity beyond the weapon that she was created to be. She knew precisely what she wanted.

"It's time," Clark whispered.

"Do it, in me, in my ass," Galatea said. She panted and dug her knuckles into the Fortress ground. "Please, please, oh god, please, take me, and take me hard."

He took her hard, he took her again. He took all three of them, conquering them all. He conquered them in every hole over and over again.

* * *

Clark left the wake of bodies before him and returned to his thoughts. He couldn't believe how this adventure started.

Each Phantom captured got them even closer to their goal. It gave him greater focus than he ever had before. There were a lot of times where he was running around, waiting something to active.

Going after these Phantoms made him proactive. It was funny, his father often discussed about the destiny that he was going for. If he going for that destiny, he thought that he was one step closer.

He could see Kara walk up behind him. She wrapped her arms around him, pressing her face against the back of the neck.

"For the record, I didn't predict how that was going to end," Kara commented. She pressed her face against the back of his neck with a smile. "But that's not a complaint, more like an observation to be honest."

"I'm glad and….I don't think it was necessarily bad that it ended that way," Clark admitted to her.

Kara shook her head in negative. "It wasn't bad, Clark. In fact, I'm glad that you thought outside the box. That's going to serve you well. Although not all of your enemies will be attractive older versions of me, so you might want to watch it."

"I've got to ask, did you know that was going to happen?" Clark asked. Kara looked at him with one of those looks, like she got caught with her hand inside the cookie jar. "I mean, did you know that she was going to change when she absorbed your DNA?"

"It was an idea, and I'm glad that it worked out in a favorable way," Kara said.

Clark turned and faced her. He gripped his arms around her.

"So, you knew?" Clark asked.

"I said that it was theory, but I didn't know for sure," Kara admitted. She allowed Clark's hands to rest on her bare waist.

Kara had to admit that was an impulse move on her part. It was a stupid, foolish, impulse. It could have worked, but there was an equal chance that it might not have worked. She was glad it did.

She could see that Clark was the same way.

"Are you glad that it happened that way?" Kara asked him.

"Honestly, I'm really glad," Clark commented. He placed his hands on either side of her waist and pulled her in close to her. It was obvious that they were going to go for a repeat performance of earlier. "But, you know, that was a risk."

"Hey, sometimes it's worth the risk," Kara argued.

Clark wasn't going to argue with that. Especially considering the fact he ran the risk of sounding like a gigantic hypocrite. He took risks that many people would consider suicidal in the past.

"And are you glad that I did something desperate and foolhardy?" Kara asked.

Clark answered by giving her a kiss on the lips. Kara spent a few moments trying to get her brain back into order. It felt like he was backing up when he did that.

"Sometimes I hate when you do that in lieu of answering a question," Kara said. She was grinning despite her initial rage.

"Well, sometimes you got to," Clark offered her. The blonde frowned when she shrugged her shoulders. "The question is, are you ready?"

"I'm ready as I'm ever going to be Kal-El," Kara admitted. She clenched her hands together when she looked into her eyes. "But what are you asking me if I'm ready for?"

"We have this responsibility to make the world a better place," Clark commented. Kara placed her hand on her hip. "We want to avoid the mistakes of Krypton."

Kara sighed, there was an extremely long laundry lists of mistakes that she wanted to avoid from the past on Krypton.

"Well, we've got a lot of mistakes to learn from," Kara said. "But you've got to remember that Earth is not Krypton."

"No, it's not," Clark agreed. "It has a potential to be something more."

Kara hoped that he was right. He seemed optimistic and she wanted to share that.

"We're the last of Krypton, the last of us," Kara said. She was pretty sure they were.

Of course, as far as Clark knew, they were among the last of their Kryptonian race. Then again, he thought to be the last and had been proven wrong. Why wouldn't that be any different?

"What's next do you think?" Kara asked him.

"Good question," Kal said.

He turned to the sunrise. A new day dawned but exactly what it would bring remained to be seen. He did gain a nice little souvenir from his exploits.

Today was a brand new day and had the potential for many new adventures.

**The End. **


End file.
